Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Work of Mourning Derrida
Work of Mourning Derrida
MOURNING
--
JACQUES DERRIDA
EDITED av
JEAN·MARIE BENOIST
(1938-'0)
Lcuer to Francine Loreau
(194.1-'0)
.'
'°5
Library of Congress Cataloging~in-PublicationDat:l The T:ute of Tears
Derrida. Jacques. 6 LOUIS AL THUSSER (1918-1)0)
The work ofmourning I Jacques Dcrrida: ediu:d by Pascale-
Anne Bnuh and Michael Naas.
Text RCild:1.I Louis AI!hlWe.r·s Funer.:11 '"
p. em. 7 EOMOND JA8~S (19u-9l)
Includes bibliographical references.
EM SBN o-:n.6-I't]I6-j (ciOlh: alk. p;lper)
Letter to Didier Cahcn ".
I. Derrida, Jacquc:s--Frie.nds and associates. 8 JOSEPH N. RmDEL (1931-91)
2. Philosophers-Biography. j. Eulogies. I. Bl1IulL,
"5
A demi-mol
P3.$C.,k·.Anne. II. Naas, Michael. III. Tide.
81430.048j \V6-] .1001 13 9 MICHEL SuvlhE (19'''-91)
'11
19i-dCI 2.4"30 As If There Were 1m Art of tile Signature:
1)'" 2. 00-01.1995
'0 LOUIS MARIN (1931-9.1)
@Tbe paper used in this publ?c:r«r.; mttlS the minimum '39
requiremerus of the: American National St;mdard for In(or· By Force of Mourning
mati<:m Scienc:c:s--Pcrmancnce of Paper for Printed Libr.ny
Mattrials, ANSI Z3948.1991. ,. The: booj.:~l'hlCal ~ktttha: are by K.:u Saghafi..
•
VI CONT&NTJ
" ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
GILLES DELEUZE (19:15-95)
" I'm Going to H:lve 10 Wande.r All Alone.
vu
VIII AC""QWUI.DGNE"T'
uvinas, Marin. and Bartha. All but the Foucault and Kofman teltLS are
published here in their entirety, the~ being abridged only in those places _ EDITORS.:.2..NTRODUCTION
where they departsignific::antly from the central themes ofthe volume. The
complete version of these teltts can be found in R~istonceJ ofPsychoanalysis
and Th~Sarah Kofmon RMd"- both from Stanford Uni",ersity p~s.
We owe a truly inestimable debt to Kas Saghafi of DePaul Uni",ersity
for compiling the biographies and bibliographies in this volume. His
exceptional library sleuthing skills and exemplary anention to derail h:1\'e
helped put Derrida's words of remembrance into the context of the lives
and works of thcsc= thinkers. Kas has asked us to thank here in his
name the excellent staff at the DePaul University Library, particularly
Marilyn Browning,lohn Rininger,and Denise Rogers, for their unsparing
and professional assistance. Kas's effortS, and those of the library staff
at DePaul, have helped make: this collection of works of mourning a
genuinely collective work of memory.
Our special thanks to Fran~oisc Marin and Christiane Mau",e for
the biographical information they were kind enough to share with us
concerning their late husbands, Louis Marin and Michel Serviere, and to
Didier Cahen, who made awLilable to us an unpublished letter by Dcrrida
on Edmond Ja~ 3nd helped write the biographical sketch on the poet. To RECKON WITH THE DEAD: JACQUES
Our thanks 3S well to Plcshette DeArmitt, David Krell, and Alan Sc.hrift DERRIDA'S POLITICS OF MOURNING
for their many excellent suggestions on the penultimate draft of this work.
We would also like to express our gratitude [0 the University PhilUl begins with 1M possibility of survival.
ReS(arch Council at DePaul University, along with DePaul's College of Survi\'ing-th:H is the other name of a mourning
Liberal Am and Sciences, and especially its dean, Michael Mezey, for their whose jlOSsibility is never 10 be awaited.
generous support of this project over the past couple of years. Po[,jics ofFrimdship
Finally, weofferourdeepcst thanks to Jacques Derrida, who not only
accepted our request to collect these "'cry personal reflections on friends
and colleagues intO:l single volume but encouraged us throughout with a
9 0, ~U" .Iways go b<fo« lh, oth«. In lh, Polilicso!
n~ndsillp, Jacques Derrida demonstrates that this is the
grace and generosity beyond measure. law of friendship--.'lild thus of mourning.' One friend
~us[ always go before the other; one friend must always
die nrst. :here is no friendship without the possibility
that one fflend will die before the other, perhaps right be.
fore the other's eyes. ~or even when friends die together,
or rather. at the same time, their friendship will ha",e been
structured from the very beginning by the possibility that
one of the two would 5tt the other die. and so, surviving
would be left to bury, to commemorate, and to mourn. '
'.
, INTaOPUCTION INTIlODt/CT10H J
While J:1(:ques Derrida has formalized this law in numerous texu when it comes to mourning, to texts of mourning, texts written after the
over the past few decades, he has also had to undergo or bear witness to deaths of close friends and dear colleagues, to ask for a reckoning, to ask
it. as friends---and there are now many of them-have gone before him, som~ne not only to recount but to take account, even to calculate, may
making explicit or effective the structural law that will have determined ~m ',ndecent or atthe very least lacking in LUte. Jf we ha\'e persisted, then,
all his friendsbips from the beginning. Over the past couple of d«ades, tn asking for such a reckoning, it has been in order to learn something more
then, Derrida has not only continued [0 dcvdop in a theoretical fashion from Jacques Derrida about taste, aboUt a taste for death and about taste
this relationship bc:twttn friendship and mourning but has, on sc:veral in death or mourning, about whether ooecan ever be politic in mourning,
occasions, and in recent years with greater and greater frequency, httn ~d whether it makes any sense to talk of a politics of mourning. In these
ailed upon to respond at a determined time and place to an unre~atable mtroduclory pa.ges we would simply like to give a briefoverview of these
event-rne death of a friend. E3ch time this has occurred, Dernda has tcxts i~ order to raise a few questions aooutthe necessity ofsuch reckoning,
tried to bear witness to the singularity of a friendship, to the absolute of ~k~ng stock of ~he de~d, of calculating and negotiating betwccn them,
uniqueness of his relationship with a friend, in a form that varies between ofglvmg them their due m a language that is repeatable, even predictable,
a word or letter of condolence, a memorial essay, a eulogy, and a funeral and that perhaps cannot help but commit what is called near the end of
oration. Each time, he has tried to respond to a singular event, a unique Proust's Remembrance ofThingt PlUta kind of "posthumous infidelity....
occasion, with words fit for the friend-words that inevitably rdate life Risking the impolitic, we have gathered logether not those texts that
and friendship to death and mourning. This volume gathers together these speak of the work of mourning, of phantoms and spcc«::rs, in a more or
various responses, written over a period of some [wenty years, in order to less theoretical fashion but those that enacI the work of mourning-;and
draw attention to a series of questions and aporias concerning what we of friendship--in a more explicit way, texts written after the deaths of
have risked calling Jacques Derrida's "politics of mourning." friends and colleagues to rccalltheir lives and work and bear witness to
The idea of bringing these texts together first grew out of a confer- a relationship with them. Written over the pa51 two decades on figures
ence with Jacques Derrida at DePaul University in October of 1996 on the well known in France and the United States (Roland Banhes, Paul de
theme of mourning and politics. During that conference, it became clear Man, Michel Foucault, Lauis Althusser, Edmond JabCs, Louis Marin,
that while these texts were not originally destined toshare the same space, Sarah Kofman. Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levina!, and Jean-Fran~ois
they have come to resemble a son of corpus within the corpus of De.rrida. Lyotard), as well 3S figures less well known (Max Lareau, Jean-M3rie
Having prevailed upon Jacques Derrida to allow us to g3ther these texts Be:noist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Serviere), these texts not only speak of
of mourning into a single volume, we have asked in essence for a SOrt of or aboUI mourning but are themselves teJCLS of or in mourning.
reckoning betw«:n them. From the very first ofthCK essays, "The J?eams We realize that in drawing anention to these SO very personal texts
of Roland Barthes." written in IgSl, Derrida has bttn concerned With the we run the risk of a SOrt of morbid taste or shameless curiosity. Yet these
relationship between the singularity of death and its inevitable repetition, are, after all, public texts, published texts, which most likely could not be
with what it means to reckon with death, or with the dead, with all those radically distinguished from othu works of Derrida. We have. however,
who were once close to us but who are no longer, as we say, "with us," for reasons of both tact and coherence. excluded from this series of public
or who are "with us" only insofar as they are "in us." By bringing these texts a~ut public figures those texts thai mourn more private figures, such
various tributes together under a single cover, by drawing up a sort of as family members, even though works like "Circumfession" and Memoirs
account of those: whom De.rrida has mourned, we have in effect asked ofthe Blind have themselves been published, and thus made public, and
each of these texts to reckon not only with the singular death that each probably could nOt in all rigor be completely distinguished from these
addresses but with one ~ll\other, and with the inevitable repetition and other texts of mourning)
betrayal that each represents in relation to the others. .
To reckon: that is to say, to recount, relate, or narrale, to conSider.
1. MJl.rcel Prouil, ~,.u of TAing, PAl'. tnans. C. K. ScOIt Moncrit:fT. T".cna
judge, or evaluate, even lO estimate, enumerate, and calcul~~e. Such a Kilrrnlrtin, lind Aool'CllJ MlI)'1l' (New York: RlIndom HOUK, 1981), j=94o-
reckoning is perhaps to be expected when it comes to politics, where j. Stt Ixquo ~frida. "Ci,cumrcnion.~in !4a,_ DnrnJ,;" by Groffrcy Bennington lind
accounts must be given, judgments rendered. and calculations made. But J""fU"S Dr:rrida, tnns. Gc:ofTrcy IXnnington (CblQlgo: Um~"Nity orChiagu Prns,
I1'lT.OI.>UCTI01'l
INT.oou<;no", ,
8y g3thering thest: works of mourning-by incorporating thcrn- ~uvr(: .. It .is p~ecisd)' this kind of tdeology that Jacques {)(:rrida fakes
imo a single volume, we hope: to make=: e=:ve=:n more=: appare=:m the=: ways in ISSUe With III hIS 1963 <:553y MForce: and SignifiC3tion," Where; in a critique
which the oeuv~ or corpus of Dcrrida has, to cite Proust once=: more=:, come of Jean Rousscr's analysis of the aC5fhe=:lics 3nd temporalit), of Proust. he
to resemble "a huge cemetery in which on the majority of the tombs the opposcs a tdcology and a thcology of signification to a new thinking
names 3re=: e=:ffaced and can no longer be rc=:ad," a cemetery where some of of force.' W.e will thus not be asking hue about an unfolding meaning
the names are nonethelc=:ss still Ie=:gible bec3use of these: acts of mourning to the: Derndean corpus, a meaning implicit already in the beginning
and friendship, en~.n if these=: nama mask or refer to others that have though not yet revc=:aled, but about the intrusion of the: une:xpccted and
long been obseured.4 We=: will ultimately be asking, therefore, about the the unanticip.oted in an oeuvre, about what happens whe=:n propc=:r names
encryption of names and friends in an oeuvre, about the way in which an btto?,e en~ra ...ed on tombs, each name joining the others and )'et e.3ch
oeuvre does not simply grow larger but thickens with time, ages, comes nammg a smgular mourning. We will be asking about the force of time
to have time written across it, becomes wrinkled, furrowed, or folded, iu and the t~me of for«, about the relation between force and l.an8O a8e=:,
volume worked over like a landscape or, indeed, like a cemete=:ry. between nme and the force of mourning.
While the texts of mourning that Jacques Dcrrida has writlt:n
over the paSt twenty years on friends from Roland 8:ltthes to Je3n-
Fran~ois Lyotard seem to agree with and confirm much that is said about
writing and death in so many e3r1y texts,' it is a banal but nonethe1~
•
In confo~mity with the genre, Dcrrida Ix:gins man)' of these powerful
incontrovertible observalion th:lt these texts could not have been wrilten and moving texIS by ad mining how difficult it is to spc=:ak 3t such a
before they were, For them to have been wriuen, time was required-and mome:nt of mourning, difficult to get the: words out and difficult to
not JUSt the passing but the r:!\'ages of time, time farone's teachers to begin find the right words. YSo much to say, and I don't have the heart for
to pass aW3y, and then one's colleagues and friends, slowly at first, bUI it tod:!y. So much to say about what has happened to U5 ... with the
then with an ever-incre=:asing regularity. This is all so commonplace, and death ofGilles Deleuzc:" (192). Three years after writing these=: words for
yet how does one r«kon it, and what does it do to an oeuvre=:? Doc=:s it the neW5~!)Cr LibbrJl;on, Derrida writes in that same paper, just hOUN
give it not simply a chronology but, perhaps, a te=:mporality, not simply a after receIVIng word of Jean-Fran~ois Lyorard's death: "I feel at such a
signification but a force? 1055, unable to find public words for what is happc=:ning to us, for what
If tht:SC essays in and on mourning appear very much in accord with has leff spttChless all those who had the good fonune to come near this
several early essays, they are=: surel)' nOl wholly continuous with or alrC3dy grc=:at thinker-whose a~nce will remain for me, I am cert:2in forever
contained within I:hem, a5 if there were a SOrt of tdeology to the Dc=:rridean unthinkable" (214). '
corpus, as if a kind of biological pr(:formationism Were at work in his In mourning we find ourselves at a lou no longer ourselvc=:s as if
the=:.sin~lar shock of what we must bear had :hered the ve:ry medi~m in
wh,c~ It wa5 to be: registe~d. But even if the death of a friend appears
19'Jp {hcraftcr ",bbre~i:lted f l q, and Memoirs oltAe BlinJ, 'Rns. ~!lak·Anne Brault unthmkable, unspeakable, we are nonetheless, says Derrida, called upon
"'00 Mkh",c1 NUJ (Chk;;lp Uni~eni1y QfChic:lgo~, 19'J,t). to speak, to break the: silence, to particip.lte in the codes and rites of
<t. ProoM,RmlfflIlmtIJat>{TJlI1lII P..", j:9-\0. While Dt:rridla mighl find ~uch '" cb1m about
mourning. "Speaking is impossible," writes Dc.rrida in the wake of Paul
hi, corptU highly probielNuc, he would tlQ( find it tOl;;llly foreign, for he him!itlfh""
Cited a 'imib.t phr3S1: in;;l rcl"'t;vcly r«en, lut on Je:lo.Paul Same in whkh ~r1re.dtd de Man's death, "but so too would be silence or absence or a refusal to
Ihi' well·known phr",sc ()f Proun h.ee k·U Cl.>unit mon'; &tIUI, ~IUI: Nme' pour uo
share one's sadneSS."7
((Ourtier aWl Temps M~," UI Tmlpl Motkmc 5' IM",r(h-M;;Iy lWi!: 7-5..)·
5. 5«, for example,Jxques Derrid.., kSil;nature Evenl Conl~I," in Mil'JI''''of''loilosopJoy,
fno,. Alan ~s (Chic;;ll.'O: Unh'enily of ChiQgo Pre». l~!b), jO!rJo. or 1M. , ofO! S« Jaocq~ l)crrida. ""'oro: and SigoiClCIlion" in Wmi", ""t! Dif!""'«'. mIlO". Abn
Cmm"",toIr>gJ. Inns. Cayaui Cn..kr;;avony Spiv",k (1ltItinmre:Johol Hopkiro UmvenllY B:.u (Ch'CQ8(1; UoiV<:nily of Cbicagll Pren, 1978), J-Jo.
Prc:u. '974). For a f:ucinuing analySIS of nunda', work on lUI .00 mourning, K': 7· Jacques Derrida. M~;"'"for PrrliJ tk Mil", trl. cd.. lnans. Cn:ik Lind""y, lOt1:,lfb.:ln
David Farrell Krdl, TkP_of&sUl..u: IH"~ofMOI<"l1lg,A",,,,,JAffimOilrion,,,tJoe Culkr, ".:d~rdo CadaV;;l. and Peggy IUmuflNew York; Columbia Un;venily Pro$,
T~olltNqwo fJrnwJ.IUnlve~ity P"'tk; Pcoo>ylvania SUle UniV<"uity Pta$" ,1(00). '9II9).•VI (hen:otrtn "'bbrevi"'le.:! as M).
6 II'lTIOOUCTIO,",
INTIWDUCTION ,
And so Derrida broke the silence, first in 1981, following lhe de.uh have interested Ihe author who has passed away (whose tastes, curiosities,
of Roland Banhes, and thirteen more times between then and now. He and projccts should, it s«:ms, no longer surprise us). Such a treatment
thus did what he thought he would never do; having spoken so often of would indeed point OUt the debt, but it would also p.ay it back" <51).
death, of the theme ofde.uh, having wriuen on so many occasions ofthosc If there arc dangers in speaking of the deceased in a certain way,
whom he knew living but who had 5ubsequendy died, Derrida had more there are equally grave dangers in speaking of one's own relations with
or less vowed never to speak JUSt after the death of a friend: them, in o(fcring, as Dcrrida says in his homage to Jean-Fran'iois Lyotard
What I thought impossible. indecem.. and unjustifiable, wh:lt long "an homage in the form of a personal testimony, which always tend;
ago 2nd more or less .s«retly and resolutely I had promisW myself toward reappropriation and always risks giving in 10 an indecent way
never to do ... was to writcloifowing th~dallll, not after, not long of saying 'we.,' or worst:, 'me'" (:1:15). In other words, there is always in
after the death by mum;ng to it. but JUSt following the death. upo" mourning the danger of narcissism, for instance, the "cgotistical" and no
oron 1M OCClIsWn of Ih~ lkath, at the commcmor:lIlivc gatherings doubt "irreptessible"tendency to bemoan the friend's death in ordu to take
and tributes. in Ihe writings "in memory" of those: who while living pity upon onest:lfby saying, as Dcrrida was tempted 10 say after the death
would hne bttn my friends, still prc:sc:nl enough to me: that some of Almusser: "A whole part of my life, a long, rich, and intense stretch of
"declaration," indttd some analysis or Wsrudy," would ~ at that my living self has b«n interrupted today, comes to an end and thus dics
momenl compt~ldy unbearabl~. (19-50)
with Louis in order to continue [0 accomp.any him, as in the p.ast. but this
time without return and into the depths ofabsolute darkness" (115).
In all these essays of mourning Derrida is aculely 3wue of the The funeral oration is a genre beset on all sides by bad faith, st:lf-
d3ngers involved in sj)(:3king of the dead in the wake of their death, the delusion, and. of courst:, denial. For evcn when we usc the dead for some
dangers of using the dead, and j)(:rhaps despite one's own best intentions, end or purpose ofour own, e\'en when we speak to the dead simply 10 ask
for one's own ends or purposes. It is a question of ooth taCI or taste for their forgiveness, it is often because we do not wish to admit that the
and ethical resJX>nsibility. Derrida's "Circumfession" is emblematic in Ihis dead can no longer respond to us, can no longcr, for aample, offer us their
reg:ud. Writing in 1989 :md 1990 aoout or "for" his mother, who, though forgiveness. Even though "nothing is more unbearable or laughable than
sti11living, no longer recognizes him, and who, though she had never all the expressions of guilt in mourning, all its inevitable spectaclcs" (<<),
really read him in the p.ast, is now blind 3nd near death and so surely will even though it appears "naive and downright childish to come before me
not read him in the future, Derrida s~aks offecling "guilty for publishing dead to ask for their forgiveness" (44), since the admission of guill seems
her end," for "exhibiting her last breaths and, still worse, for purposes that a~mcd always at its ex~i:lfion, at giving oneselfa good conscience, Derrida
some might judge to be literary" (C. :25,36). himSC':lfdoes not refram from expressing regret al having Ict certain things
Perh3ps even more disturbing, 3nd even more common, than these: cloud a friendship or at having b«n too discreet in the declaration of his
"literary" purposes are the personal or political uses to which a death is put admiration or affection. He writcs in his essay on Jean-Marie Iknoist, "J
with the intent nOI simply of reckoning but of winning or scoring points. blame myself for this more than ever today, and for having taken these
Derrida thus rculls the desire on the part of some "still to m3neuver, things much more seriously than they deserved to be, as if death were not
to speculate, to try to profit or derive some benefit, whether subtle or keeping watch" (IIO).
sublime, to draw from the dead a supplementary force to be turned against . ~olitical calculat~on, personal retaliation, narcissism, auempts at
the living" (51). Whereas Derrida might rather easily avoid thesc more achIeVing a good conSCIence-these are JUSt some of the dangers [0 which
egregious forms of bad tasle or bad faith, he finds olhcrs morc difficult to these texts are, by their very nature, exposed. But can one ever write with
avoid or even recognize:. Derrida thus speaks in several of these works of perfect tact or in perfect taste~ In "Circumfession" Derrida dreams ofone
the dangers inherent in what might appear 10 be simple aCls of fidelity, day writing with a syringe rather than a pen, so that all he would have
dangers inherent in all commemorative gatherings and tributes, all funeral to do is find the right vein and let the writing come on its own, a writing
orations. "There are of course lesser offenses, but offenses nonctheless: ro mat would no longer have to choose, inscribe, and calculate, that would
pay homage with an essay that treats the work or a p:ut of the work be "without any labor or responsibility, without any risk of bad taste or
bequeathed 10 us, to talk on a theme that we confidently belicve would violcnce" (C. 12). This is, of course, just a dream, for it .seems that for
, INTIlOOOCTION INT.out/eTION 9
Jacques [krrida there never is any writing without responsibility, without none of these difficulties ever jeopardized his "friendship" or "admiring
an other to whom it must respond. In each of th~ texts of mourning, attention," that none of this "ever compromised in the least the foundation
then, Jacqu~ Derrida must struggle to avoid such bad taste, to fermin of [the I friendship" (116).
from using a de:l.th for his own advantage. That is, he must continue Trying to bear witness to a unique friendship without giving in to
to reckon. some narcissistic "we" or "me." being willing to return to the troublesome
And what is our own responsibility in reading these texts of mourn- aspects of the paSI without wanting to claim the "last word" on it (98),
ing? Can we ourselves avoid using them for our own purposes, either Den'ida !:Iys OUt not so much a middle ground as a series of aporias,
simply to add toour knowledge or, more per\"(~r.sdy, wsatisfy our curiosity aporias that, curiously, do not paralyze: speech but inhabit and mobiliu:
about the deaths of famous tcachers, writers, thinkers, and philosophers it. In his asay on Roland Banhes, for example, rkrrida wonders whether
and the:: reactions they elicited from Jacqua Dcrrida? Since we arc: reading fidelity to the friend consists in reading or acting like him, or in giving
texts mat mourn the passing of people who, in most cues, were not to him or to his memory something completely different and unexpected.
our own friends or colleagues, 3n~. we not destined-.are we perhaps not The answer. it seems, is to be fouod not in dissolving the aporia but in
c\'cn invited--to use these=: deaths and the lessons learned from them to clarifying and undergoing it: "I was searching like him, 3S him, for in the
understand the deaths of those dear to us? situation in which I h:Jve been writing since his death, a certain mimetism
By pronouncing these texts of mourning in a public forum, by is at once a dUI)' (to take him into oneself, to identify with him in order
publishing mem, Jacques Derrid:l has, it seems, made unavoidable this to let him speak within oneself, to make him presclll and faithfully to
slippage from one dcath to anothcr, this rcpetition and transference of represent him) and the worst of tempmtions, the most indecent and most
the rhetoric and perhaps even the sentiments of mourning. We cannot murderous. The gift and the revocation of the gift, JUSt try to choose" (38).
mourn for those another has mourned--or;n least not in the 5.1mt way. Dcrrida suggests that it is only "in us" that the dead may speak, that
They could not have touched us in the same way, and so we betray them it is only by speaking of or as the dead that we can keep them alive. "To
in reading--though this betrayal will have bttn made possible, if not keep alive. within oneself," asks Dcrrida, "is this the best sign of fidelity?"
inevitable, as we will see, by the very publicity. me very readability, of (J6), and he seems to answer in the affirmative, SO long 3$ we understand
mourning's inscription. that this "within oneself' is always already a response to the friend we
Despite all the dangers of the genre, all the dangers of memory mourn. "Each time," writes Derrida, we must acknowlwge "our friend
and recognition, De:rrid:a remembers and pays tribute. He recalls n04: to be gone forever, irre:mediably absent ... for it would be unfaithful to
only wh:u is public hut wh:n is ~.rsonal, not only what concerns us all delude onCKlfinto believing that the other living in UJ is li\'ingin himself"
but what concerned only him. In several of these=: texts. Derrida recountS (AI.20).
personal memories of the deceased: traveling on a pl:me to B.thimore with Fidelit)' thus eonsist.S in mourning, and mourning--atleast in a first
Roland Barthes. driving through Chicago with his son and Paul de Man, moment--<onsists in interiorizing the other and recognizing that if weare
recounting stories with Sarah Kofman at dinner, speaking with Louis to give the dad anything it can now be only in us. the living. Derrida writes
Ahhusser and Je:an-Franlj:ois Lyotard for the last time on the telephone, in "By Force of Mourning," in the context of:l reading of Louis Marin's
receiving a final letter from Michel Serviere, He recountS and recalls but work: "ever since psychoonalysis came to mark this discourse, the image
then :lsks in almost every case :about me tact or taste of doing so, trying in commonly used to ch:aracteriu: mourning is thai of an interiorization (an
each case to avoid the insidious pathos of personal memory. idealiZing incorporation, introjection, consumption of the other)" (159)"
One way to temper this pathos is to refuse to pres«:1lt a picturedone's
relations with the friend that excludes all difference or conflict. Derrida
thus often says that he owes it to the truth,and "so as not to give in tOO much 8. Derrid" wrlla in M~'_fr Paul tk ,",lin; ~Memor)' arid inttrioriution: 5i/ltc Frrud,
to the genre" (56), not to whitewash the stormy aspC(lS of his friendships. thi! i~ how thl: 'normal' 'work of rnooroing' i$ oftrn lk~ribed. II enl"ib a nKtVrmenl
in ",h'rh "n interiorizing idrari:r.:llio<!l:>.kl:$ in itKlf lit upon ill,elf the body and voirr
He thus speaks openly of the difficulties in his friendship with Foucault lIf the <llhcr, the OIhrr'. ..isajte:>.nd perloOll, Ideally and <Iu,u,·liter:l.Ily .kvour'rlg Ih«n~
beginning in 1972, and of his differences with Althw;scr, Max Lareau, (M, ]~). Fnt a motr drv<1oprd aIl3J~, ollne rrloatlOO<hip ooW<:rn inuojrction and
and Jean-Marie lknoist. In each case, however. he wishes to reaffirm that inrorpor:anon in mourning, ore ~Fura: The Angl;lh Worch of NM:ol~ A~lum and
'0
"
Not to rceogni7'(: th~ intractable reality mat the dead arc now only "in us" and looks at us asourorigin and our law. Derrida argues throughout these
would be not only a form of denial but a betray31 of the dead friend, a essays that the living are who they are only in and through these oth<:rs,
failure to accede to the unique event Ihe friend has undergone. "He is no their interiority, even their narcissism, constituted Ollwa)'S in relation to
more, he whom we see in images or in recollection.... And nothing can them, their memor)' itself formcd, as De.rrida writes remembering Louis
begin to dissipate the terrifying and chilling light of this certainty. As if Althusser, "only through this movement of mourning" (I 15), Though "the
respect for this cCrlainty were still a debt, the last one, owed to Ine friend" modes of interioriz.1.tion or of subjectification that psychoanalysis [alks
(159-60). The dead can and must be only "for us," and everything we about are in some respects undeniable in the work of mourning" (159),
receive from and give to them will remain among OUf5Clvcs. In the text interiori7.ation is never completed and, because of this reorganization of
written Mfar" Roland Sanhes, ~rrid3 reminds himself that the thoughts space, remains in the end impossible. According to Derrida, interioriunion
he dedicates and destines for Sanhes MwiJI no longer Te2ch him, and this cannot-must not-be denied; the other is indeed reduced to images Min
must be the starting paim of my rdkction" (35). What we must recogniu us." And yet the very notion of interiori7.3.tion is limited in its assumption
in every funeral oration, in every memorial gathering and tribute, is that of a topology with limits between inside and Out, what is ours and what is
everything we say of and even to the friend "remains hopelessly in us the other. "Roland Banhes looks at us ... and we do not do as we please
or be.tween us the living, without ever crossing the mirror of a certain with this look,even though each of us has it at his disposal, in his own way,
sJXculation." In other words, "All we seem to have left is memory ..." according to his own place and history. It is within us but it is not ours; we
(At. 32 -33). do not have it avaiiOlble to us like a moment or part ofour interiority" (44).
£\'<:n the proper name seems to refer, in the wake of death, ROt to Dcrrida invokes throughout these ess3yS of mourning the possibility of an
the deceased but onl)' to him or her in us, in memory. ~When I say Roland interiorization of what can ne\'er be interiorized, of what is always before
Barthes it is certainly him whom I name, him beyond his name. But sina and beyond us as the source of our responsibility. This is the "unbearable
he himself is now inaccessible to this appellation, since this nomination paradox offidelity" (159). The look th..n is "in us'" is not ours, as the images
cannot become a vocation, address, or apostrophe .. , it is him in me that I within us might seem to be. We look at the deO'ld, who have been reduced
name, toward him in me, in you, in us that J pass through his name" (46), to images "in us," and we 3re looked at by them, but there is no symmetry
But what does it mean to s..~y that the de.ild are "in" us? ReAecting between these pus. There is thus a ~dissymmetry that can be interior-
on Louis Marin's final book on the powers of the image, De.rrida describes iud only by exceeding, fracturing, wounding, injuring, traumatizing the
the topology and orientation of this supposed interiority of the mourning interiority that it inhabitS or that welcomes it through hospitality, love, or
sdf before demonstrating their limits in the very assumption of a limit. friendship" (160). In other words, "GhostS: the concept of the other in the
"When we say 'in us; when we sJXak so easily and so painfully of inside same ... the completely other, dead, living in me" (41-42).
and outside, we are naming space, we are speaking of a visibility of the In mourning, we must recogniz.e that the friend is now both only
body, a geometry of gazes, an orienL1tion of perspectives. We are lpeaking "in us" and already beyond us, in us but totally other, so that nothing we
ofimagn ... IThe other! appears only as the one who has disappe3red or say of or to them can touch them in their infinite aherity. The other who
passed away, as the one who, having p3sscd away, kaves 'in us' only images" has been reduced to images looks at us, looks '"in us," but at :10 infinite
(~59)' Mourning consists in recognizing that the dead are now only "in us," r~move. "We are all looked 3t, I said, 3nd each one singularl)" by Louis
now only images "for us." And yet there is a limit to this interiorization, Marin. He looks at us. In us. • , . He is completely other, infinitely other,
one that comes not from some impermeability of 3 boundary between twO 3S he has always been, and death has more lhan ever entruned him, given
homogeneous spaces but from a different organization of spaa. For the him over, distanced him, in this infinitc aherity~ (161). Th~ friend must
part that is "in us" comes before and is greater than the whole, that is, be interiorized, but the singular alterity or "infinite lranscendence~ that
comes before and is greater than us; the part that is seen by us first sees marked our friendship and constituted the very friendship of the friend
cannot. ~Upon th(' death of the other we are given to memory, and thus
to interiorization, since the other, outSide us, is now nothing. And with
Mana Torok.~ IXrrida·. fore....,..,j 10 Abraham and TlII"ok'l WofU... i Ml1gK K-Ont" the dark light of this nothing. we learn that the other resists the closure
InQI.. Nod,.,.:.. Rand (M",ncapol~ Un,v<,nuy of MmMtOla Prcu, 1#). ri-lllvm. of our interiorizing memory.... death conslirutes and makes manifest
1".,.aoncCTIos '3
the limits of a me or all us who arc obliged to harbor something thai had thus alre3dy come to Ix reflected in mourning, in the eyes of the
is grealer and other than them; something oUlJiJe oflhm'l wilhin lhcn" poem, e"en before friendship-..J mean before the friendship that later
(M. 34). We. can thus IlOderstalld why Dcrrida in MemQireJ for Paul Je brought LIS together" (I u).
Man would s..'ly that "the possibilily of Ihe impossible" commands "the We began by saying that one friend must always go before the other,
whole rheloric of mourning," and why the aporia of mourning dictates that one must always die firSt. For Derrida, this is not just $Orne law
that "success fails" and "failure succeeds" (At, 34-3S). "For this is t~ law, of destiny to which we all must succumb but a law of friendship that
the law of mourning, and the law of the law, always in mourning, that it friends must acknowledge. Derrida begins his lut in memory of Jean·
would have to fail in order to succeed. In order (Q succeed, it would well Marie Benoist, "To have a friend, to look at him, to follow him with
have lofail, to fail well. ... And while it is always promised, it will never your eyes, to admire him in friendship, is to know in a more intense \\':IY,
be assured" (1401)' The work of mourning is thus not one kind of work already injured, always insistent, and more and more unforgetlab1e, Ihal
among others; it remains, says Derrida, "the name of a problem. For if one of the two of you will inevitably S« the: other die" (loS). There is "no
mourning works, il dlXS so only to dialcclize death, a death that Roland friendship without this knowledge of finitude," 5.')'5 Derrida in Memo;"$
Bartheseulld 'undialectical'" (So). for Paul d~ Man, "and everything that we inscri~ in the living present
We thus return to Ihe question of responsibilily and fidelity, of how of our rel:ttion 10 others already carries, always, the signature of rncnoir/-
to mourn and how 10 speak in mourning, how to bear the aporia, the from-MyonJ.lhe-grrwe" (M, 23--29). The aporia of mourning in which we
impossible choice between two infidelities. "Is lhe most distressing, or srtm to be caught following the death of the friend, at the end of a living
even Ihe most deadly infidelity that of a pauible mourning which would relationship, is already there, "irrually at work, from the very inception of
interiorize within us the imag~ idol, or ideal of the other who is dead and that friendship. Writing in the wake: of Sarah Kofman's death, Derrida
lives only in us? Or is it that of the impossible mourning, which, Icaving explains thata knowledgeofherdeath,ofhcr possible death, filled the very
the other his alterity, respecling thus his infinite remove, either refwes to air their friendship breathed: "From the first moment, friends become. as
take or is incap.'lble of taking the other within oneself, as in the tomb or a result of their situation, virtual SUf\·jvors, actually virtual or vinu:llly
the vault of some narcissism?" (At, 6). actual, which amounts to just about the same thing. Friends know this,
This is the aporia in which we are left at the death of a friend, the and friendship breathes Ihis knowledge, breathes it right up to expiration,
"poria in which we arc C3ughl when every successful stt:\tegy of mourning right up to the last bre:lth" (171).
would well have to fail.:m aporia thal becomes most p:llpable:n the death We prep:lre for the: death ofa friend; we anticipate it; weseeourse:lves
of the friend but was already in force well before. For the mourning that already as survivors, or as having already survi,·ed. To have a friend, to
follows death had 31ready bttn prepared and anticipated-.md thus had call him or her by name and to be: called by him or her, is already to
3lread)' begun-wdllxfore death itself, the anticipation of death coming know that one of the two of you will go first, that one will belefl to speak
"to hollow out the living present that precedes it" (151). Indeed, friendship the name of the other in the other's absence. Again, this is not only Ihe
would be but :mother name fur this anticipation, for "that twilight space ineluctable law of human finitude but the 1:1\'1 of thc name. As Dc.rrid:l
of wh:1I is called mourning: the mourning that follows death but also the has shown in numerous texts, the name is always relaled 10 death, to
mourning that is preparro and that we expect from the very beginning the structural possibility that the one who gives, rccei\·es, or bears tht:
to follow upon the death of those we love. Love: or friendship would Ix name will be absent from it. We: can prepare for the death of the: friend,
nothing other than the passion, the endurance, and the patience of this anticipate it, repeat or iterate itlxfore it takes place, because '"in calling or
work" (146). Mourning begins before death, already with friendship- naming someone while he is alive, we know that his name can survive him
and, in some cases, even before "friendsbip proper." Derrida invokes and alreaJy $UrlJi~J him" (M, 49); we know that "the name begins during
both friendship and mourning in relation to Edmond JalXs even before his life to gel along without him. speaking and bearing his death each
aClually meeting him, that is, after having only re:ad him: "There W3S time it is pronounced •.." (101, 19). Mourning thus begins already with
alre-dd)' in this first reading :1 certain experie:nce of apopharic silence:, of the name. "Even before the unqualifiable event called death, interiority
absence, rhe desert, paths opened up off all the beaten tracks, deported (of the other in me, in you, in liS) had already begun its work. With the
memory-in short, mourning, every impossible mourning. Priendship first nomination, it preceded death a$ another death would have done.
'.
The name alone makes possible the plurality of deaths" (,,6). Yet another
"
able to become readable, up to a certain point, without the reader, he or she,
aporia. For while the proper name "alone and by itselfforcefully declares or any other place of re:tding,occupying the ultimate position of addressee.
the unique disappearance of the unique," it also bespeaks the ponible This mourning provides the first chance and the terrible condition of all
death-<tr de:lIhs--of the one wbo bears it, saying "death even while: the: reading" (220).
bearer of it is still living." It say¥ death, and so lends itself already to In mourning, the unqualifi3ble event is rcpeated; the proper name
the work of mourning, to all the: "codes and rites" that work to take away bespeaks a singular death and yet allows us to speak of that death.
the "terrifying" privilege afme=: proJXr name lodeclarc: "the singularity of to anticipate and prepa re for it, to read it. Derrida begins his text on
an unqualifiable deal.h" (4). The: proper name speaks the singularity of Emmanuel Le\·inas. "For a long time, for a very long time, I've feared
death, and. in speaking, :II ready repeaLS that singularity, already survives having to say AJ;~u to Emmanuel Levinas" (:zoo). Though the text was
it. "The: n3mc: r.lees toward death evcn morc quickly than we: d~" says dearly written in the emotion immediately following Levinas's death in
o.:rri&l in his teXt remembering J~ph RidddJ "we who naively believe: Deu:mber of 1995, mit opening indicatc=s that ccrtain words must have
Ihat we bear it.... It is in advanct: the name of a dead person" (Ijo). already been half.formed, that mourning must have already been at work,
In "The Deaths of Roland Barthes," Derrida insists on recalling that virtually at work,long before, no doubt as long as there was friendship"
"Roland B.anhes is the name ofsomeone who can no longer hear or bear it" We thus imagine, even before the facl, a world without the friend or
(4s).lndttd.death appears to stV<T the name from the bearer of it; it is the without us, a world that will have absorbed either a~nce. And )"et when
event or operalion that lifu or peds the name off the body that oncc bore the event itsdf com~, the event we thought we knew and had prepared
iL But as Derrida rCCllls 50me sixteen years after this text on Barth~. in ourselves for, il hits us tach time uniquely-like the end of the world.
the context ofan analysis of Sarah Kofman's 13$1 work on the relationship "What is coming to an end, whal Louis (Ahhussc:r1 is tak.ing away with
between the book and the body, the corpus and the cor~ mis oJ)(:ration him, is not only something or other that we would have shared at some
severing the name from the body is already at work among the li\.jng. The poim or another, in one place or another, bUI the world itself, a certain
operation "proper to death" happens everywhere a name can be cited or origin of the world-his origin, no doubt, but also Ihal of the world in
used without or in place of the body. It becomes possible with the very which I lived, in which we lived a unique story" (t IS). In "each death"
giving of .. name, .. nd so happens to us "all the time, especially when we there is an end of the world, the phrase "each death" suggesting that the
speak, write, and publish" (1;9). The name is St'parable from the body, end of the world can come more than once. For J2CqUes Derrida, it came
the corpus from the corpse. This is the case when others use or speak our at least three times in the year 1990 alone. The world, the whole world, is
n.. me, either before or after our de..th, but also when we ourselves usc our losl, and then, impossibly, the catastrophe is repeated. Speaking after the
name. Derrida commems on Michel Scrvierc's work on the signature: "a death of Jean~Marie Benoist, Derrida recalls how "death takes from us
signature not only signs bUlspeaks to us always of death," of "the possible not only some p:trticular life within the world ... but. each time, without
death of the one who bears the name" (lj6). limit, someone through whom the world, and first of all our own world,
Though m.. ny of these claims and propositions about the proper will ha\'eopened up in a hoth finite and infinite-mortally infinite-way"
name or signature C31\ be found, as we said, in innumerable carly works (ra7)' And again in '990, the same year he spoke of the end of the \Yorld
of Derrida, never have they been put to the leSt as they arc in the texts in the deaths of Althusscr and Benoist, Dcrrid:t \Yrites after the death of
g:Hhered in this volume. In 1999, for example, Derrida rr:calls a phrase: Max Lareau: "each time it is nOlhing Icss than an origin of the world, each
wrintn some nine years earlier by Jean-Franj;ois LYOIMd in a text th:ll time the sole world, the unique world" (95).
was, in some sense. destined for or addressed to him. He recalls this In "each death" there is an end of the world, and yet the rhetoric of
curious phrase, "there shall be no mourning," one year after the death mourning .. lIows liS 10 speak of this end :llld multiply it, both 10 anticipate
of Lyotard, in part to show thai the very possibility of reading it. not only it :md repeat it-with regard nOl only to one friend, one proper name, but
in '999 but aheady in 1990, was determined by the struclural possibility many, one death after another. The "death oflhe orner" is the "6rst death"
Ihat its addressor, a$ well ..s-for no one knew who would in fact go (201), as Levinas says, and yet the firsl death gCIS repealed. With ~(Jchfirsl
first-aIlY of its addressees, .. nel first of :til Derrida, would be absent from d~(Jlh the whole world i5 lost, and yet with each we arc called to reckon
it. "Readability bclUS this mourning: a phrase can be readable, it muSt be our losses.
ll'lT..OJlUCTION
" INTaODllCTION '7
Each time we:: mourn. then, we:: add anothe.r name to the series of thaI are, we ha\"t~: to assume, JUSt as unique? What happens when the
singular mournings and so commit whal may 1J,(: called a ~rt of"posthu- unique dearn is taken up into all the codes and ritu31s of mourning, when
mous infidelity" with regard to the 01h(':l"$. Even worse, if friendship is the singular event comes to be marked by the design';Hro sp..'lces and times
always structured by the possibility that one friend will die before the of mourning, when all talk of dealh comes to be inRectro by a prescribed
OIher, then simply to have friends-more than onc-would already be rhetoric? Can thete. be other words in which to mourn?
to commit this infidelity. The infidelity that occurs after dealh will have Because of the possibility, indeed the ineluctability, of iter3tion, we
begun already before iL The singular friendship, the singular mourning, should perhaps not assume rnal we an ever identify with absolute certainty
the first mourning, will hav(: already ~n repeated; posthumous infidelity the object of our mourning. For we might think we are mourning one
would thus structure all our friendships from the Vtry beginning. friend when we are in fact mourning another, or think we are mourning a
If our friendships, and rnus our mournings, end up bcing inscribed colleague when we ;are in f;act. or in addition, mourning a child, or, as we
or iterated in a series rdating each unique death to others, then this series see in the essay on Barthes, a mother. Or perhaps all our mournings are but
would also appear fatally to presage other mournings of its kind. This iterations of the one d~th that can n(:\'cr be identified-the 6rstdcalh, the
would be yet :lllolher form of infidelit)', another way of reckoning, against total, undialectical death-so that what is mourned is a sinboularit), thai
which Jacques Derrida struggles in ea.ch of these texts. Though "each cxceeds any proper name, making posthumous infidelity the very work of
death is unique~ (193), as Derrida writes in his text on Deleuze. though mourning. Perhaps what we mourn is thus always nothing other than our
each strikes us a$lhe first death,as the end ofthe world, can we not prroiCi vcry ability to identify, our mastcry over the other and over death, as we
wh.;n future mournings will look like for Jacques ~rrida, what reserve yield to a force that is not ou~, 3 force that alw3Ys exceeds the rhetoric
will be found in them, what texts eited--<m death, or force, or absence? of mourning.
Inasmuch as Jacques Derrida has himself written not just one but In 'the Deaths of Roland Barthes," the first essay in this collection
several texts of mourning, the betray:ll of the unique other, of the friend, and the one that, to borrow a word from it, "irradiates" and punctuatcsal1
appears not only spoken about but enacted, playro OUI. Already in "The the others, announcing, in a sense, all these other deaths, Derrida antllyzes
Deurn of Roland Barthcs," the question of the iteration of death is posed, the "metonymic force" that allowro Barlhes's analysis of his own mother's
and it is pUI to Ihe test in all the texts of mourning that follow. We began death in one of his last works to become meaningful/or lIS. This force,
by saying thou J::>.errida has triro -each time" to respond to the dealh of a he argues. while able to assure "a ceruin generality to the discourse,"
friend wilh words fil for that friend, words that inevitably relate life and that is, while. able to make it understandable to us, is also what makes it
friendship to death and mourning. But how does one respond to a singular "poignant to us," striking and piercing for us. Such a force cannot simply be
event "each time," and how is one's responsec.ompromi~d if, "each time," "mistaken for $Qmething lhat facilitates the movement of identification;'
it ends up rdating life and friendship to dealh and mourning? How can for "the aherit)' remains almost inttlct; thtlt is the condition" (58),
one mourn Ihe singular event all the while knowing thaI there have been It is Ihis metonymic force of alteritY-:llong with the movement of
and probably will heather friends to mourn, other singular events to which identification that "almost" immroiately inscribes it-that allows what is
[Q respond? poignant and striking in each of these deaths of Jacques Derrida to be
In his Politics of FriNltUirip Derrida explores the question of the repealed. And il is this force, along with the moment of reckoning that
number of friends it is good or possible to have, following a line of accompanies it, that, at the end of two decades, allows all these so siriking
investilf-ltion from the NicomacnMn Ethics. where Aristotle claims that deaths to be pUI into a series, gatherro together nOl only into tI volume but
we can have true friendship with only a few,~ If friendship is essentially into something like a "generation." In his 1995 text on the death of Gilles
related to mourning, how many friends ln3y we or are we able to mourn? Deleu;r.e, Derrida writes: "E:lch death is unique, of course, and therefore
What happens when one friend must ~each time" go before the ather, when unusual. But what can be said about the unusual when, from Barthes 10
a singular rdation with a friend ends up being repeated, put into relation Althusser, from Foucault to Deleuze, il multiplies, as in a series, all these
with others. compared and contrasted-in a word, reckoned-with others uncommon ends; in the same 'generation'?" (193). Derrida goes on tospc:ak
of those of "my 'generation'" who were formnate enough to share their
thought and time with Ddeuu. Indeed it seems that Derrida has been in
,s lOlTlODU<;TlttOl '9
the process of mourning an entire ~gencration" of French and American ear the end of a "generation," then, we have these texu, gathered
intellectuals in philosophy, literature, and litcU.fY theory. But can one together, selttted by means ofcertain crileria, alrc2dy part of 2 genre. And
really speak of mourning 3 ..generation.... the singularity of a generation, yet the genre ofthe eulogy or funeral Ol'3tion is not one genre among others
or would this be yet anomer way of reckoning and thus betraying aillhe but the ont': that, it could be argued, opens up the possibility of a political
singularities within it? What is the fortt oftime or language that allows the space to accommodate all the others. Though it is beyond the scope of
unique death to become absorbed. e..,aluated, comparw. or reckoned, to this introduction, which has focused essentially on tht': politics in or of
be<omc simply parlOr an epoch or pan or what wccall-with this ~tcrrible mourning, to show how politics or the political is related to or perhaps
and somewhat misleading word"-3 .. ·g~eration' .. ? (193). Derrida's uSC: even arises out of mourning, OUt of the rites and rituals of mourning, it
of quotation marks already puts us on guard, alerting us to his suspicion is important to note m2t Derrida is nOI unaware of these larger stakes.
that it would not Ix: difficuh "lO show that the times of those who seem to In Aporias he writes: "In an «onomic, elliptic, hence dogmatic W:lY, I
belong to the same epoch, defined in terms of something like a historical would S:lY that there is no politics without an organization of the time
frame or social horizon, remain infinitely heterogeneous and, to tell the and spa.ce of mourning, without a topolitology of the sepulcher, withom
truth, completely unrelated to one another" (55). an anamnesic and tht':matic relation to the spiril2s ghost, without an open
And yet, near the end of a "generation," time appears marked by a hospitality to the guest as ghost, whom one holds, just as he holds us,
different rhythm, as "you reach an age •.. where more and more friends hostage.'· In the long essay in this volume de\'oted to Lyotard, Derrida
leave you" (108), so that,e-.·en if terrible and misleading, this word perhaps speaks of Lyourd's own analyses, in Tile Differmd and elsewhere, of the
speaks a certain truth about the gathering force of memory and mourning. political dimensions of the funeral or2tion. Since Plato's Men~nnU$, or
For it is no doubt this multiplication of deaths within 2 generation, this since the funeral oration of Pericles thaI Plato panxlies in this dialogue,
metonymic forceof mourning, that allows us to identify a generation in the polities is rdated to, or founded on, mourning. In the Athenian contat,
first place. and the multiplication of deaths within and across generations for example. it is rdated to a rhetoric of mourning that trles to complctt': or
that allows us to gather and compare our various responses to de:nh and even foreclose mourning by lifting death up,sublating it in the fulfillment
to identify them as already belonging [0 a genre. and glory of the Mbeautiful dealh,"
While these texts vary gre:uly in form, from letters of condolence The genrt': of the funeral oration is thus more than a powerful
addressed to family members to eulogies read at the grave site, from words genre within an already given social and political context; it constitutes
oftribute first published in newsp.1pers in the hours immedi:ndy following or consolid:lIes the very power of that context, with all the promises and
a death to memorial essays read at colloquia 2 few or even many months risks this ent2i1s. In his essay on Banhes, Derrida says he himself was
after the death, and while any rigorous analysis of these texts would have tempted, out of a kind of fidelity to Barthes, who W2S a master of th~
to reckon with all the differences in tone, $lyle, audience, and context, these genre of looking at genres, to analyze. the genre of funeral tributes and
texts are nonetheless J>3rt ofa recognizable genre, even if there is no single dedar:ations, nOI necessarily iu historical origins but "what in this century
apt term to describe it. Auentive as always to questions of style and genre, has come to repl2c~ tht': funeral oration the corpus of d(':(.laratjons
Derrida rcAecu in th~ essays on tht': Vet)' genre of the eulogy or funeral in newsJ>3pel$, on radio and television the rht':torical constrainu, the
oration, aU the while himself giving or2tions or eulogies, pronouncing political (>Cl$peetives, the exploitations by individU:lls 2nd groups, the
tht':m, working within the codes and tropes of such speech aCts and yet pretexts for taking a stand, for threatening, intimidating, or reconciling~
referring throughoul 10 whal exceeds them. Dcrrida has thus opted, it (sl), Derrida does nOI carry out such an an21ysis in any of these texts. One
see:ms, to forsake or abandon neither the concept of mourning given to us could, however,on the basis of these texts, ask a number of political, social,
by psychoanalysis nor Ihe genre ofthe funeral oration that has been handed or historical questions that llirrida does not, questions nOI only aoom the
down to us in the West from at least the time of Periclt':s. Eulogizing the
singularity of the friend, he has tried to inhabit 2nd inAect both the cona:pl
10. Jatquo IXnWb,A,IIl>n<u. In"" ~ i Ouro;l (SQnford: ~n()fd UmveulIY Pr~
and the gt':nre of mourning differently. Ht': has tried 10 reinvent, always in
I99J), 6,~~. In Sp«Nn of Miff%. lrans. P,,", Kamuf IN"... York, Routkdl'" '9904),
public and always in contex~ that is, always from within, a better politics 1Iis, DerrHb spc::aks of karnl~ to Ion with glM»u or S f ' " l , , " ; b a Mpo/i4n of rno:moxy.
of mourning. ,nhc:nlit.n«. and goenera~·
,. I"'T~OPUCTIOt: INTIl,OPI,H;nON
"
practices of mourning in the West. and particularly in France, but about, themselves, of the book rather than tbe body. of the corpus rather than
(or example, Ihe role of the intellectual in Prench society, or the place of corpse, and yet, following Kofman's analysis, Derrida sees in this tendency
the university in France and the constitution 9f its members. The fact" for nor simply a form of repression bur an affirmation oflife. There is surely a
instance. that only one woman--S.'lrah Kofman-is spoken of here surdy kind of infidelity in the biography or obituary, which tries to encapsulate
tells us something 1100U1 the cducatiomll institutions in France during the a life, to reduce the dead to their accomplishments, to a series of dates
fwemieth century. The role the United States has played in the intellectual and places, but Derrida courts this infidelity (as do we in the biographical
itineraries of several thinkers spoken arhett, from de Man to Lyotard to accounts (lCcompanying these texts), noting dates and places, works and
Dcrrida himself, is also noteworthy. And one is constantly reminded in days, not $0 as to absorb the singularity of the deceased inlo some literary
reading these texts and the biographies appended to them just hQw much or philosophical history bUl SO as to mark their unique time and place
tllis "generation» has been marked in one way or another by twO world among us,the only ones lhey ever had and will ever have. The singularity
wars and by the event named ~ Auschwitz," There would be much to s.ay and punctuality of the date ("In t930 Levinas. , ,") can, of course, be
as well aOOm the kinds of death gathered here, from deaths in relative reduced to history, but before such a reduction they are the inscriptions of
old age by "natural causes," to premature deaths from sudden illnesses, to an event,
flccidents, AI OS, <'Ind suicide, Again as a concession to the genre, ~rrida cites in everyone of
As we have seen,there :ue numerous dangers inherent in the genre lhese teXts the words of the dead-ami often at length. But considering
of the fUlleral oration-not the least of which is. prec.isely that it is a all rhat has been S:lid about iOlcriorizMion 3nd Ihe status of the other
genre. For "the discourse of mourning is more threatened than others, «in us," it would seem that citation is actually being used here as a
though it should be less, by the generality of the genre" (95)' It should be form of textual interiorization, that the words of the dead are being
less threatened because it is each time a response to an absolutely unique incorporated not merely to become part of the text, to be "in it," but
event, so that any recourse to common usage or convention seems either to act as that point of infinite alterity "within" the text, to act as its law.
"imolcrablcor vain," 3ndsilcnceappears to be "the only rigorous response" It would seem that Derricla's "rhetoric of mourning" is borrowing from
(72.,95), And yet, as we h;1ve seen, since 1981 Derrida has refused silence, the schema of ill(erioriz~lIion in order to convert citation from a gesmre
and so has opened himself and his words up to the generality of the genre, simply dict:l.ted by the genre into anot.her consequence of the met.onymic
to an unavoidable rhetoric of mourning. Even to approach the death of force of mourning.
a friend as an example of "impossible mourning" would be to betray the Because there is no first death available to us, no protos thanatos
uniqueness of that friend, as one attempts to transfer what is unique and to become the sole and incomp:uable object of our mourning, iteralion
poignant, as (:lerrida says in his essay on Sarah Kofm:m, "onto someone is unavoidable, the slipp.1ge between deaths inevit3ble, our language for
else," or worse, "ontO $Orne conceplUal generality that would not be Sarah. speaking about these deaths repeatable and, thus, open to citation," In
Sarah Kofman herself" (172), "Circumfession" Derrida himself follows the mourning ofanothet, citing
Despite all the dangers of the genre, of genres in general, these texts words of Augustine in the first person, and in another language, as he
of mourning enact many of the rhetorical gestures of other el1logies or mourns the death of his own mother: "Ego silebam et fletum frcn3oom"
words of remembrance: in each case, Derrida at once be3rs witness to a II remained silent and restrained my tearsl (C, 20). Derrida is himself, at
uni'lue, person:al relationship with the deceased and pays tribute to thdr this poim. tending to his own dying mother, trying to put into words what
public life and 3ccomplishmems, their words and deeds, $Ometimcs even
attempting to draw inspiration from the way they approached life and I.. In the Lysit~"'lr$obi«l) in thecouneof a oonVerS;l\iOll llboul the n:lwreoffriendship
death in word and deed, Derrida is, of course, well aware of both the that if the frknd is alWllyf a friend for the oak... of something d~, Ihen they will he
danger and the necessity of speaking not simply of the dead, of the "dead forced 10 follow the eh:ain of fr,endf bad to the "original friend IJmIton pIIikml.for
lhemselves," but of their works, their deeds. or their signature, In his wh<- sake all the <>ther things U.n be $.:Iill to he friends'- l'his would mean that all
tlws<: <>then WhOOl they had cited as friends for Ih" ....ke of Ihat one frklld ~may be:
analysis of a shott text writte.n by Sarah Kofman just before her dealh, d«eivillg Ul like so many phll/lIOmS ofit. while!hat originallhin~ m:ly b<- ,he V"rilllbl"
Ocrrida speaks of the repression-the no doubl irrepressible repression- friend (afMt& phikmr (Plato.L)'sis, trons. W. R. M. Lamb lC;.mbridgc. ~b.$5.l H:lrvard
involved in speaking of the works oft.he deceased ralher than the deceased University p~s, I~Jl. :lI~J.
11llT~O,·tlt;:,·,OI'/
'''''''~ODUCTro,.. '3
is to come; he thus turns to Augustine for words about silence and tears to mark a limit, the place where the inimitable gesture of the dead friend
address his own imminent loss. Yet it is not just Augustine's mother's death, becomes inscribed, and thus repeatable, comparable to other gestures, put
or his own mother's, that he seeks to address in this way. but his own. For iOlO a series, perhaps even reckoned as pMt of a "generation." Each time,
through the tears he tries (Q restrain in mourning for his mother he sees, citation would mark the beginning of a unique :md singular life as well as
forestts, his own children taced with his own death; "I weep like my own its brulal interruption,
children on the edge of my grave" (C, 41). In his own tears, in Augustine's, Now, it is not insignificant th:lt in citing the dead in these texts it
there are already thast: of his children-the tears of yet another generation. is often an explicit reference to death or mourning that Derrida recalls.
Throughout thislext, citation appe::ars as the vehicle by which Derrida both For in each of these works Derrida mourns noc. only a fric:nd but a writer
recalls Augustine's singular mourning for his mother, for her alone, and or thinker who ine,'iubly had something to say about death or mourn-
links this mourning to others, allowing for both singularity and rdation, ing. Hence, Derrida turns in these euays to the deceased's own words
something absolutely unique and yet nonetheless sh::arw. about death (Foucault,. Deleuzc:, Levinas), or mourning (Marin. Lyourd,
The intc:rioriZ3tion of the friend in mourning, the reduction of that Benoist), or the relationship betw~n death and Iiter.tture (Althusser.
friend to signs and Images "in us," is thus paralleled, it .seems, by Derrida's de Man, Jabb, Lore:lu, Riddc:l) or photography (Banhes) or painting
use and incorporation of citation in these texts of mourning, as if, in a first (Kofman, Sen'i~re). Citing Ihe one who is no longer, borrowing from
moment, such ciUtion would allow Derrida to let the friend speak, to give them what they have to say about mourning or death, appears to be a
the one he is mourning the last word. Derrida writes nar the beginning way of bearing witness to the friend so as to say or enact with their own
of his teXI for Louis Marin. "ut us begin by lening him speak. Here are words an Adieu, or rather, an "Adieu"-itself a citation, since it was
a few words, his words, that say something difficult to understand" (14j), Emmanuel Levinas, Derrida recalls, who "will have raught Ihiml to think
and he then cites Marin's words on for~ and the mourning afforce. In his or to pronounce (this word] otherwise" (200).
text on uvinas, he says, "allow me once again to let Emmanuel uvinas Citing works on death and on mourning, Derrida frequendy turns
speak, him whose "oi« I would so much love to hear today when it says here to the last words of the dead, that is, to their final works, those
that the 'death of the other' is the 'first death; and that 'I am responsible written just before death that speak ofdeath in general or, uncannily, ofthe
for the oc.her insof:lr as he is mortal'" (204). u anticipated or intimated death of the.ir author. 'n "The Deaths of Roland
Is there, then, we might ask, a law of ciution to which we mUlit an- Sarthes," Derrida writes, just after ha\'ing cited Barthes on the death of
swer and lx-fort: which weare responsible? What are the responsibilities of hjs mother and on his own death; '" could f~1 a SOrt of autobiographical
cit-1tion, of adorning, concealing, or protecting oneself beneath qUOfation acceleration, as if he were saying, 'I feel that' have little time left: ...
marks? To whom or what are we responsible in mourning? To the friend While still living, he wrote a death of Roland Barthes by himself' (52).
him- or herself? To his or her words? His or her memory? What is the In "I'm Going to Have to Wander All Alone," Derrida cites a passage in
best way of remaining faithful? In remembering Sarah Kofman, Derrida which Deleuzc: is speaking not only ofdeath but, in some sense,of the very
says he was "tempted to appro.1ch Sarah's last text" in order "to make manner of his death (192). Citing the other speaking ofdeath, of their own
linger, th(':$(' last words leaving her lips" (175). Are we responsible for death, here allows the dead a sort of Junrilltlnce, a kind of living on, not
endlessly citing or repeating the words of others SO as to allow them to only after their death, their actu:.1 death, but even before, as if they were
live on! Or are we responsible to something else, to the unique gesture already living on posthumously before their death, as if they had found
that first produced such words and allowed such citations! Do we cite a way nOt simply to utter some prophetic intimation of their own death
merely to repe;lt the words of the other. or do we do $0 in order to en:tct but to enact the impossible speech act from Poe cited at the beginning of
or reenact an inimitable gesture, a singular way of thinking, a unique Spe~ch and Phmome1/Q,,:"1 am dead."
manner of speaking? If Ihe latter, then the quotation would in each case Yet the question of fidelity and responsibility remains. In a first
moment, citation seems to be a way of avoiding the ind«eocy or irre~
u. L:ucr on thillext o..rrKb ~CtWlIy St:lgd a hric(~convcrsation~ betwet'-n BIII~hoc and
sponsibility of speaking simply of the dead, of them as a suhject or object.
LninaJ by dting Bl:onchol's word, (rom TM InJinjl~ Co"vrrsllfimr about Lrvinal-<ln Whence the possibility ofsimply citing them,ofleuing them speak without
,~orpor.. ,ion or ,mc,io,iullon of ~n mlCrioriurion. interference or imerruplion. BUlIO do only this would be to offer no real
ISTaODUCTIOS IsTaODUl;l'lOJo1
"
recognition or rribute, no gwuine gifl to the other. Derrida writes in his traversal ofdiscourse loward the unique, the 'referent' as tht' irrt'placeable
texi for Barthes, reformulating. il seems, one of Ihe aporias of mourning other, the one who was and will no longer be" <.56).
inlO an aporia of the r"~to";c of mourning: Everything would thus be interiorized save that which touches
us mosl-that which is mosl poign:rnt. In Com&a Lucida, the text in
Two infidelities, an impossible choice: on the one hand, flot 10
which Barthcs devdops his theory of the punctum and the Jtudium in
say :lnything Ih:ucomes back 10 oneself, to one's own voice::, 10
relation to the photographic im;tge, a teXI wriuw not long after Barthes's
remain si!em. or at the very leasl 10 kt onesc:lf~ accompanied or
mother'sdeath, the photograph that strikes him most, the "Winter Gardw
preceded in counterpoinl b)· Ihe friend's voice. ThUs. OUI of ualow
Pholograph" of his mother as 3 child, is the one photograph described
devotion or gratitude, out ofapprobation :u well. 10 be content
by Barthes that is not reproduem in the text, mal is not framed, citm,
withjlur qUOling, with just accOfnpilnying thaI which more or less
or incorporated by it. For il c;an exist, he says, only for him: a singular
directly comes wck or returns to the other. to let him speak. to
photograph, a singular death, a punctum th:lI strikes and wounds only
dTace one5Clfin front of and 10 follow his speech, and to do so right
him. And yet. aS!tOOn as it strikes, as soon as it makes its mark, in words
in fronl "fhim. But Ihis excess offiddilY would end up s,1ying and
if nOt in images, the singular death is pluralized, opt:ning up a sp:lce :md
cxch:mging nOlhing. It relurns 10 death. It points to dc:1lh, .sending
time that can be read and so reckoned wilh other times and other deaths.
de:nh oo.ck to death. On the olher hand, by avoiding 011 qllOJotion,
In his analysis of Barthcs's book, Derrida caLis this photograph that
all idemificalion, all t:lIpproc:hement even, so thaI what is addressed
does not appear, that is not incorporated or interioriz.ed into the text,
to or spoken of Roland Bartha truly comes from thcothcr, from
the punclllm that irradiates the entire field or muJium of the book. It is
Ihe li,ing friend. one risks making him disappear again, as if ooe
beyond every frame, escapes every interiorization, and yet makes possible
could add more death 10 death and thus indecently pluralize: il.
the series of photographs and the relations that Barthes finds between
We are left then with having 10 do and nOI do bolh at once, with
them. Similarly, in each of the texts of mourning gathered here, there is
having to COTleel one infidelity by the Olher. From Olle de:uh, the
an interiorization of whal cannOt be inreriorize:d, a citation punctualed
olher: is Ihis the uneasiness Ihallold me to begin with a plural? (~5:
or bordered by that which gives this volume its force of mourning. One
our emphasis)
might Ihus think of Derrida's essay on Barthes as not only the first in the
By citing the other, by recalling the other's words and then cuning series but the punctum of the emire collection. A5 the first of these essays
thcm ofT, DeTrida altempts to negotiale thl': p35sagc: Ix:tween these two on the deaths offriends and colleagues, it has itself become repeatm and
infidelitIes. The work or labor of mourning would Sttm to consist in pluralized, its themes and claims as well as its gestures and rheloric, so
attempting to dialectize, as Roland Barthes said, the undialectic.11 dl':ath, that the pluralit'y of "deaths" in its title already names the deaths of all
:rnd in sodoing, to be f:rithful by me:rnsofbctr:ryal. S~aking at a memorial these others.
gathl':ring for Jean·Franr;ois Lyotard in 1999, one year after his death, "Each time"_a phrase th:n we now see both marks a sitcofileration
Derrida again gives voice to thl': double imperative 10 let the friend speak, and substilution and punctuales a singular time and place--one must
him alone. and yet nOileave him alone as he speaks: "A double injunction. speak so as to gi\'e voice to the friend's singulariry, so as to respond both
thw, contradictory and unforgi\,'ing. How to leave him alone without for and to Ihe alterity that first makes ones response possible. Whence
abandoning him?" (225). the desire, and the responsibility, to speak not only of but with or even
And so Dcrrida cites :rnd interrupts the citation, the point of this to the dead, the desire to tear the fabric of language that would reduce
interruption, thl': intersection of these IWO infiddities, being perh3ps the the dead to the living, the other to the same. Though we must recognize
point or force that wounds us, that pierces us, the punctum or point of that de,nh has m:tde the friend inaccessible except "in us," thallhe other
singulariry that will have organized or given force to the rriend's work. whose name I still use can no longer "become a vocation, addre$s. or
It is Ihis point, perhaps, and not their words, Ihat Dcrrida mourns, so apostrophe" (46), our desire to speak again to the other. 10 the other
th;at citing and interrupting the words of the dead is the only W:l)'. the uniquely, corresponds nonetheless loa responsibility. Such a responsibility
only chance, ror the punctum to make its mark. "I relUrn to this because is secretly acknowledged. it appears. by the very genre of the eulogy
punctum seems tosay, to let &tnhes himselrsay, the pointorsingularity, the or funeral oration, where one: is allowed to -speak familiarly 10 the
INTIlODUCTlQN INTItOOUCTION '7
other who keeps silent, calling upon him without detour or mediation, say cogito, sum, I know that I am an image (or the other and am looked
apostrophizing him, even greeting him orcon11dingin him" (200). Though at by the other, even and especially by the mortal other. , , . Louis Marin
this may seem to be done merely out of "respect for convention," "simply is looking at me, and it is for this, for him, that r am here Ihis evening.
part of the rhetoric of oration," it also testifies to the need "to traverse He is my law, the law, and I appear before him, before his word and his
speech at the \'ery point where words fail us, since all language thai would gaze" (160).
return to the self, 10 us, would Sttm indecent, a reflexive discourse that Yet another danger in mourning, perhaps the greatest, is that when
would end up coming back to the stricken community, to its consolation the friend has died, when he or she has become infinitely distanced from
or its mourning, to what is called, in a confused and terrible expression, us, we tend to forget this law and shy away from this gaze. We have
'the work of mourning'" (:loo). In another concession to the genre, then, seen how, for Derrida, the mourning that follows death is prepared for
Dcrrida spe<tks not only of but /0 the friend. Always a response to a unique and anticipated even before death, how this anticipation is the \'ery time
occasion, always occasioned by others and by events that are beyond his of friendship. But after the event of death, after the singular event, the
control. the eulogy or funeral oration provides Derrida with the occasion loss that had been anticipated risks becoming strikingly present, leveled
to bear witness 10 the singularity of the friend in the midst of all these off, in a word, reckoned. We recall what Mau.rice Blanchol, speaking of
iterable codes by means of a unique apostrophe. Even if, within the genre, Georges BauiUe, writes near the very end of Frimdship, an exemplary text
this apostrophe is always a "supplementary fiction, for it is always the dead of mourning and of friendship. While it might .s«:m that in death the
in me, always the others standing around the coffin whom I callout to ... friend becomes truly Other, e\'en more than they were in life, Blanc.hot
[thel caricalured excess, the overstatement of this rhetoric at least pointed seems to suggesl the opposite, for "when the event ilS(:lf comes, it brings
OUI that we ought not to remain among ourselves. The interactions of this change: not the deepening of the separation but its erasure; not the
the living mwt be interrupted, the veil must be lorn toward Ihe other, widening of the caesura but its leveling aut and the dissipation of the void
the other dead in UJ though other still" <51-52)." The eulogy or word of between us where formerly there devdoped the frankness of a rdation
condolence, pronouncW always al the limits of life and death, provides the without history...••
unique occasion to rum to the dead--"in us though other still"-one last The drama, it seems, is not so much that we lose the friend after
time in tribute, in memory, one last time in friendship. death but that we c:m no longer lose them; they who were ana: so distant
Such a turn to the friend is, in the end, all we have to give. And if this become all too close, too dose because now only within ~n us as a part
turn is not completely ours, that is why it is a gift. For in turning toward of us and of history and no longer as the singularity that called us OUI of
the friend who has died, we turn not as already constituled beings loward ourselves and first made us responsible before them. What Blanchot seems
someone outside us, or simply inside us as part of our interiority, but to suggest is that the apostrophe becomes more and more effaced as the
toward our law. toward what first forms our very interiority. As Dcrrida friend becomes absorbed by history, their name put alongside others in
says of Louis Althusser, "he hears me only inside me, inside us (though a series, compared and analyud, in short, reckoned-gathered togelher
we are only ever ourse///U from that place within us where the other, the in a volume. Since we can no longer turn toward them, no longer s.<ty
mortal other, resonates)" (t 17). It is only through memory and mourning "Adieu" to them in an apostrophe, they become simply present to us, no
that we become ourselves, indebted even before we can owe anything to longer our friend but just another name in the cemetery, or just another
ourselves. "Louis Marin is outside and he is looking at me, he himself, figure in the pantheon of French and American intellectuals of the paSt
and I am an image for him. At this very moment. There where I can few decades.
. By gathering these lexts of mourning into a volume. by reading,
analyzing, even dissecting Ihem as we have done here, we inevitably avert
I], Thul, even wh~n ont $~I(i a filial tjm~ to lhe df'JId and I\OIl ,jmply of lhem, il il our gazes from the dead to Derrida's words "bout them, avoiding Ihe
only w the <kad ". H4 lhal "'"<' speak. Though Derrida saYI he wishes 10 say adku 10 corpse in order 10 learn from the corpus. And yet what else can we
Levinallt;",;,/[. he knows lhal he mWlI McaJl his name. hil fim namr. whal he: 'I ailed
al the, moment when. if he no looj1:u respondl, it il becawc he il rnponding in UI,
from d,e bouom of our hearts, ;n UI bul bt:fore WI, in WI right before u_in calling I... Maurkc Blanchot, FnnuiJl"p, t .... n•. EliulX'lh ROCltnbc:rg ($t:lInfufd: Stanford
U>, In reulling 10 UlI: • ..0;.,...
M Univc:nl'Y Pre.., 1997), :i92.
,8 INTaOUUCTlQN INTl(>DoeTION '9
do? In <1 spe:cial issue of a journal dedicated to the memory of Sarah I:lke it up, patient enough to read and reread it. "In the end this is the
Kofm:IO, Derrida recalls Korman's comments on Rembr::lndt's painting question Marin leaves us. It is with this question that he leaves us, like
The Anatomy Law" in order to describe the very situation in which he and rich and powerless heirs, that iSJ both provided for and at a loss" (144).
the others participating in the memorial issue have found themselves. Like We are the heirs ofquestions, Derrida suggests, responsible for and before
thedoclors attending the analOmy lesson, they are looking at books rather them; only by remembering them, by returning to them, are we 10 have
than the body, "as if, by reading, by observing the signs on the drawn a future. Speaking "in memory" of Paul de Man, Dcrrid3 thus promises
sheet of p.'1per. they were trying to forgel, repress, deny, or conjure away to "speak of the future, of what is bequeathed and promised to us by the
death-and the anxiety before death" (176). This, it .seems, is the risk the work of Paul de Man" (M, 19). Hence Derrida's insislence in so many of
living must always run. Since 19B1 Derrida has run it numerous times, these texts that we go back and reread what we have alre;ldy read, L,ke
and from the very first words of the vuy first text. jndced the uindecent" up again what has been left us. He writes of Max Lareau: "I am rereading
and somewhat "violent" title "The Deaths of Roland Barthes" already him right now in wonder, better no doubt than ever before. I would like
seemed 10 suggest that Derrida was "resisting the unique," I rying to avoid, to quote everything, read or reread everything aloud. Everyone can-
deny, or eff.'\ce Banhes's unique death in the plural; but "how do we speak everyone shouJd----do this" ~). "For me everything still remains to come
otherwise and without laking this risk? Without pluralizing the unique and to be understood" (170), says Derrida ofS:lrah Kofm:ln's work after
or generalizing what is most irreplaceable in it?" <S8-s9)· her death. Derrida Ihus reads lind rereads, analyzes and qucstions, and
How else do we speak and how else do we lei the dead speak? then often ends by citing the words of his friend om:: final time. He SOIYs
At the deall\ of;1 friend, we feel il is almost indecent to speak, and yet at the end of his eulogy of A!thusser, "I wish now to turn it over to him,
the substitution of the name for Ihe body, of the corpus for the corpse, to let him speak. For another last word, once agllin his" (lIB). Again in
appears to be the only chance the dead have left. That is why Derrida conformiry with Ihe genre, Dcrrida recalls the words of the dcce.ased in
so often cites the dead in these te.xts and, near the end of so m.1ny of .an attc.rnpt to hear them or bring them back to speak to us one last time.
them, turns to the de.'1d for a final word. While the bodies of these friends And in each case he asks whether it is politic to be doing this, whether
and thinkers have been spirited away, Iheir bodies of work remain; they he is aCling with fact or in good taste, whether he is being f.1ithful to the
remain with liS, though it is not certain th:lI we understand or can ever friendship he mourns.
completely understand them, that is, interiorize them. Just as, for Dcrrid:'l, In each of these texts of mourning, Derrida begins by saying that he
those whom he calls "friends" remain in some way "forever unknown and is at a loss, that he cannot lind the words. We have seen how "this being
infinitely secret" (225), just as the debt that binds him to them is "in some at:l loss also has to do with a duty: to let lhe friend speak, to turn speech
sense incalculable" (224), 50 dle works of these friends remain unknown over to him, his speech, and especially not to take it from him, not 10
and our debt to them incalcubble, undecided, open to a future. Because take it in his place-no offense seems worse at Ihe death of a friend" <.95)'
Derrida always recognizes not only the syslemllticity and coherence of a And yet, as we have also seen, this duty is countered by another, the dUly
corpus bUI its openness. its unpredictability, its ability to hold something lO pay tribute to the friend in one's own words, to give something lxtck,
in reserve or surprise for us, one of the ways he pays tribute to a work is by even when speaking in such circumstances is almost indecent, in bad taste.
bearing wimcss nOi jusl to what it has taught us bill to the questions Thus Derrida speaks, for in speaking, in giving an account, in reckoning
it has opened up and left us. Derrida concludes his text (In Foucault with Ihe dead, and with the rhetoric of mourning, that which exceeds the
and his History of Modn~ss: "What we can and must try to do in such account, lhe apostrophe that refuses to be absorbed by any reckoning, by
a situation is to pay tribUle to a work this great and this uncertain by any of the riles of mourning, is given Ihe chance to come on the scene for
means of a question that it itself raises, by means of a question that it an impossible performative. Such is the duty of the friend, a duty whose
carries within itself, that it keeps in reserve in ilS unlimited potential, one call must always be mel, and yet one the friend must never get used 10.
of the questions that can Ihus be deciphered within it, 3 queslion thai Derrida writes in his essay devoted to Jean-Marie Benoist: "One should
keeps it in suspense, holding its breath-and, thus, keeps it alive" (88). not develop a taste for mourning, and yet mourn we must. We must, but
The question keeps the text open, keeps it alive, assures it a future, or al we must not like it-mourning, Ihat is, mourning ifSt'1j, if such a thing
least opens it toward the future, $0 long 3S we are ready and willing 10 exists" (I 10).
JO I NTII.ODtlCTION
On~
•
must respond c"cn when one does not havc the hean or is at a loss,
CHAPTER
lacking the words; one must speak, e"en reckon. 50 as to combat all the
forces that work to efface or conceal not juSt the names on the tombslOnes
but the: aponrophe: of mourning. Dc:rrida's oeuvre: or corpus, assuming ROLAND BARTHES
that it can be: identified as such and that it is singular, has become marked
throughout by these performativc:s. marked by proper names that recall me NOVEMBER U. 19'j-MARCH :016, 19&0
unique, many uniquc:s, and th.:l.t give to this oc:u"r~ a certain temporality
and force ofmourning itdid not and could not have had yean ago. Like the
photograph, which, as Roland Barthes says in Comera Lucido, ~i.s literally
an emanation of the: referem,"' its unique force the result of being not a
representation of the referent but a record of its having been there "on
that day," an imprim of its very light on the day of reckoning. this volume
is fiUed to the point of being consumed by the light of these extinguished
luminaries.'s And this is perhaps its force, its force of mourning, a force
that "gathers" only by dispersing more and more of the Pleiades il\lo
the night,. by interiorizing and recalling a singular incandescence !.hat no
volume and no memory can contain.
Each time Dc:rrida is facc:cl with h.wing to speak in mourning, Acclaimed lilerary c.ritic and essayist Roland Barthes
one imagines him saying to himS(:lf with words that resemble those of was born in Cherbourg, into what he described as a
another, "A reckoning? No, no rc:c.konings. Never ag.:l.in."" And yet, each "bourgeois family," to a Protestanl mOlher, Henriette
time, he will have reckoned, and reckoned with what is always beyond Binger. and a Catholic father, Louis &rthes. Barthcs W.:l.S
all reckoning, c:1iciting in so many of us who remain to read him an scarcely a year old when his father, a naval lieutenant.
inca.lculable gratitude. died in combat in the North Sea. Much of &rthcs·s
childhood was spent in Bayonne, in the southwest of
France, until he moved to Paris in 1924, where his
mother earned a modest living as a bookbinder. From
1930 to 1934 Barthes attended the Lyctt5 Montaigne and
Louis-Ie-Grand, obtaining two baccalaureates. He then
studied classics and Prench literature at the University
of Paris. Sorbonne. and founded the Groupe de (hfatre
antique.
Throughout his life Banhes suffered bouts of ill
health, the most devastating being an illness in his left
lung that first began in 1934 and would affect the next
ten years of his life, dashing his hopes of ever auending
the Ecole Normale Supericure. In 1937 he was exempted
15. RoI~nd Banhes. c._ ~: &jkaKJtU (>tl P4oI0If"Ipny, uatU. Ric:hard Howard
from military service after contraeting tUberculosis. De·
(New York: H,lland Wang, '981). ~1.
16. 0.,..
Sec M.lIurice BI"nc:hoI. Tit.- MIUhtas o/rk Ir..nt. Lydia Davi. (Barryrown, N.Y.:
spite his poor health, Barthes visited Hungary and Grec:ce
before starting to teach at the lyc& of Biarritz in 1939.
Station Hdl Pta., 19111). 18.
j'
CII"PTK.ON8
JJ
He eventually obtained a fiana de feltres cfauiqueJ in 1939 and a dip/orne in Baltimore along with a number of other leading French intellccrua!s,
d'itlldl!S mpbiellrl!S (based on his work on Greek tragedy) from the inc.luding Jacques Derrid3. From 1969 to 1970 Barthes lectured at the
Sorbonne in 1941. From '940 to '941 he taught intermittently al the Lycees Mohamed V University of R.1b.11 in Morocco and later taught rhctoric at
Voltaire: and CarnOl in P3ris. A relapse of his pulmonary tuberculosis the University of Geneva.
in 1941: caused him to enter the Sanatorium Saint Hilaire in the I~re His famous essay 'The Death of the Author" appcared in 1 , v
region. He spent the next five years in and out of various sanatoriums and around the same rime he began criticiZing structuralism in his seminars.
convalescing in Paris. During these years he read Michelet voraciously, In the early 1970s Barthes published a nring of innovative books: S/Z
developed an interesl in existentialism, and wrote for Camus's journal, (1970; a reading of Balzac's novella "Sarrasine"), Empir~ of Signs (1970)~
Combat. Due to his ill health, the future professor at the Coll~gede France SadelFourinlLo)'Q1a (1971), N~w Cnticaf EsJays (1972.), and The Pfeasur~
and renowned expert in semiology was never able 10 take the ogrigotion ofth~ Tat (1973)· His interest in painting, in particular Giuseppe Arcim-
exam and never held :II degree higher than a «nijiau de fiance in grammar boldo, Ert~. and Cy Twombly, also dates from the same period. In 1971:
and philology (obtained in 1943),' Banhes mctthe young film director Andre T&hine, who would become
With improved health, Barthes taught French at the (nstitut Frallfllis :I lifelong friend. (Banhes pl3yed a minor role, as William Thackeray, in
in Bucharest, Romania (t948), and at the University ofAlexandria in Egypt T6:hine's Ln SOl!tITS Bronte 11978J). In 1974 Barthcs accompanied SoUers
(1949-50), before returning to France. Between 1951: and 1954 he wrote a and Kristeva on their trip to China and became a champion ofthenout~u
regular column for LeJ fmrl!S nOll~lfes and cofounded a radical journal, roman, especially the work of Robbc-Grill~tand Sollers (Harmes's Sollers.
TM6tre poptflairl!. from 1952 to 1959 he worked 3t the Cc:ntre National de Writer appeared in 1979).
la Recherche Scientifique, doing research in lexicology and sociology. His The 19]05 saw Barthcs's increasing rise to prominence with the
first book, Wn'ting Degr« Uro. :lppc:arcd in 1953, followed by Michelet publication ofan "autobiography,: Roland Bank by Roland Bortlw hOZ4. \/
(1954) and Mythologies (1957), all of which displayed innovative uses of aftcr which he m:l.de several radio and television appearances. Barthcs was
Saussurean structwallinguistics. then appointed to the chair of "literary semiology" at the College de France
In 1960 he entered the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, where, (hi.s inaugural !«rure, delivered in Janu;uy 1977, was later published as
in 1!Jl>1:, he bec:llne director of studies in the "sociology of signs, symbols, Ltron). He conducted a number ofimporunt radio interviews during this
and represcma!ions." A ycar after the publication of his controversial timc with Bernard-Henri Uvy and Jcan~Marie Benoist and, from 1978
On Racine (1!Jl>3), Raymond Picard, a profc:ssor at the Sorbonne and to 1979, contributed a regular column to 1..L "oI4~f obsuvat~ur. A Lot'us
editor of the PI~iade cdition of Racine's works, published a pamphlet Discourse, published in 1977, became a best-seiter, :lnd B.1rthcsappeared on
criticiZing Barthes. Thc ensuing "war of the critics" (Barthes rcsJXlnded Bernard Pivot's popular television show Apostrophe. In 1978 a colloquium
in Cn'ticism and Tnlth in 19(6) had the unintended result of increasing was devored to Barthes's work at Cerisy-b-Salle (at th3t time, an honor
Barthes's burgeoning reputation. USlL1lty bestowed only uJXln the deceased).
In the early IgOOs B:lrthes befriended members of the journal T~f The dcath ofBarthes's mother on October 25. 1m was a devastating V
Qud (to which he 31so often contributed), in particular Philippe Sollers and blow from which Banhes, according to his own account, never fully
Julia Kristeva (who became his student in 1¢5). In 1966 he visited Japan recovered. His last book. CammJ Lucida, written partly in memor.!.. of
for the first time and attended the famous conference :It Johns Hopkins his mother, was published in 1980. On February 25, 1980, after Icaving a
lunc~eon organized by J;'Ick J...1ng for the presidential candidate F'ran\ois
I. Geoffrey Benningwn ofTeN Ihe folloWing opbnation Oflhe:u/l'iga,irm: ~n,ca8r1f{<l'Km Miuerand, Barthes was hit by a truck while crossing the rue des Ecoles
i. 3 compet.iti.·c u311lirnuion Ihal qU2lific>; 5ucc(:Ssful cafl(Jidatc~ for hiRher !!taching ncar the Cotlege de Prance. He was taken to the Salpetrierc Hospital
lJOSIS. Su«ctt in thiJ eDmil\lltiun guar:>ntca we ('1\(li(1;11.( a SUIte: jQI, for life, .nd where he was treated for tr:wma and later devdopcd severc pulmonary
il i~ con~ucntly highly prized. A fiul suge of the eu.ninalion con~iu!l in wrim:n
complications. Already handicapped by chronic respiratory problems,
fDP""s; th~ ,"chieving a high cnotlJ!.h filIrl< in ~ rnovc: on Il) t~ ol'1tl c:u.minat'ioo at
which the final rcsuh.t arc d<:cidcd~ (Geoff"')' Bennlllgton and /lIc"luC$ Dcrr;d3.J"'"'I~J &nhcs died on the afternoon of March :16, 1980.
DnntU. ,nr.ns. Gc.-olTrey Iknningtoo (Chic:lgo: Un;"",,si,y ofChiclllO P.~. '9931.339).
..OLAND """TIllIS JS
THE DEATHS OF ROLAND BARTHES Barthes fragmentary. or why I value [hem for their incompleteness
even more than for their fragmentation, more for their pronounced
How to r«oncile this plural? How to concede, grant, or accord it? And to incompleteness. for their punctuated yet open interruption, withoul even
whom? How to make it agree or bring it into accord? And with whom?' the authorilative edge of an aphorism. These Iiule stones, thoughtfully
And such questions must also IX' heard with an ear to music. With a placed, only one each time, on the edge of a name as the promise of
confident obedience, with a certain abandon thai I fed here in ii, the plural return,
Sttms to follow: an order, after Ihe beginning ofan inaudible se-ntence, like
an interrupted silence. It follows an order and, nOlice, it even obeys; illets •
itselfbe dictated. It asks (for) its4.":l( And as for myse-If, at the very moment
I allowed mysdftoorder a plural for these deaths, I tOO had to give mysdf These thoughts are for nim, for Rob-nd Barthes, meaning thai I think
O\'e( to the law ofthe name, the law of numbers.~ foobjection could resin of him and about him, not only of or about his work. "For him" also
it, not even the modesty immediatel)· following an uncompromising and suggests that I would like 10 dedicate these thoughts to him, give them to
punctual decision, :I decision that lakes place in the almost no time of a him, and destine them for him. Yet they will no longer reach him, and
(camera's) dick: it will have bem like this, uniquely, once and for all. And this must be the starting point of my reRectionj they can no longer reach \I
yet I can scarcely bear the apparition of a title in this placeJ'rhe proper him, reach ill the way to him, assuming they eyer could rutve while he
name would have sufficed, for it alone and by itselfsays death, all deaths in was still living. So where do they go? To whom and for whom? QnJy for
one. It says death even while the bearer ofil is still living. While so many him in me? In you? In us? For these are nOt the same thing. already so
codes and rites work to take away thi.s privilege, because it is so terrifying, many different instances, and as soon as he is in anomer the other is no
the proper name alone and by itself forcefully declares the unique disap- longe.r chI:: same, I mean the same as himself. And yet Ba.rthes hinudf is
pearance of the unique-I mean the singularity of ao unqualifiable death 00 longer there. We must hold fast to this evidence, to its excessive clarity,
(and this word "unqualifiable~ already resonates like a quot:lotion from one and continually relurn to it as if to the simplesl thing, to that alone which,
of Roland B:mhcs's texts I will reread laler).lXath inscribes itself right in while withdrawing into the impossible, stilllea\'CS us 10 think and gives us
the name, bUI 10 tu immediately 10 disperse itself there, so as to insinuate a occasion for thought.
strange synlax-in the name of only one to answer (as) many/,
•
•
(No) more light, leaving something to be thought and desired.j To know
J do not yet know, and in the end il really does not matter, if I will or rather 10 accept thai which leaves something to be desired, to love it
be able to make it dear why I must leave these thoughts for Roland from an invisible source of darity. From where did the singular darity
of Barmes come? From where did it come 10 him, since he tOO had to
receive il? Without simplifying anything. without doing violence to tither
ReprinlCd, w;lh chan~ from "The Duth$ of Rob.nd &.rthes,~ tnnd.llw by P.lKale-Annc
the fold or the reserve, it always m'lU'UlUJ from a certain point thai yet
Brault and Michael NUl.;n C(1IItlnnJUf Plliloroplry 1 (1~)::J59-¢- Republishcd1n PlukwpJty
11M NOtI_PlldGlvj>lty lill« MfflCtlU,Pf}tlry. edit«! by Hugh J, Silverman (Evanston, Ill.: Nonh· was nOI a point, remaining invisible in ilS own way, a poinl that I cannol
wC$tc.rn Un1ver~ily I>rtn. 1997), 259'"¢. Copyright 0 19S8br Hugh J.S1Iverman. NOflhweRern locate-and of which I would like, if nOI to speak, at least to give an idea
University Pr",u cdiJiOll publi$hw 1997 by arrangement with Hugh J. Silverman. All rl/lhts of what it remains for me.
I'dCrved. F'im P~l'I(h publication, ~w mort$' de Robnd Bsrthc.s." Pohique 47 (Scpr.cmlxr
1981): oa6?-9:a. Republldlw 11'1 P~"'. by lacql,lC$ Dcrrida (P;Iri" Galil«. 1987), 173-J04·
I. Dc:rr;c1a il ","ork1ng here w1th sevenl dilTerel'lt meanings of the verb~: to bring
1nlo harmony or accord; 10 C()(KWe. granl, admit, or avow: 10 pul in grammal;(al
agrccm",nt: to IUIler-T"III1. J. PIUI#k can mean both ~n\(tre~ and ~oo more, ~ Thi. undecidability i$ diseUSKU by Alan
1. UI fof dO' /KIm (the law of the: nam<') sUggeRS {., foi J" _bn {the law of' numbcn. Ball in a tnllUblOr'S note ;1'1 Derrid.l'. M"rgw '?! PII,~y (Chicago; Un;ven;ly of
th", rule. 01 the IIlajorily)..--T...lIJ, Chicago Pre,n, IC)8a), .ll!)o-T... II,<,
,6 C""i>T1l1l t)t'll 11.0 ..... "0 IA~TIII!S 37
• •
To keep alivt, within oneself: is this the best sign of fidelity? Uncenain For the first time, then, I read the firsl and last Barthes, wilh the welcomed
whether I was in fact going to what is most living, I JUSt read (wo of his nai'vett ofa dcsire,a..r if by reading the first and last without stopping, back
books I h:ld never read Ix:fore. I thus secluded mysdf on this island 35 if to back, as 3. single volume with which I would have secluded myself on
to convince myself that nothing had b«n finalized or had come to an end. an island, I were finally going to see and know everything. Life was going
And so I believed this. and each book told me what to think o(this belief. 10 continue (there was still so mUGh to read), but a history was ~rhaps
I had, for quite different reasons, postponed reading these two books,the going to come together, ;l history bound to itself, History having become
first and the 135t. First, IVdring lXgru ZLro: J understood better iu (or« Nature through this collection, as if . ..
and n«essity beyond all that had previously turn«l me away from it, and
it was not only because of the capit31 leuers. the connorations, the rhetoric,
and all the signs of an er3 from which I had then thought I w:u /ll/ting
•
laJ~ lsoTt;') and from which it Sttmed ne~ry to take :and rescue (.torti,.) I JUSt capitalized N:nure and History, He u.sed to do it almost all the
writing. But in this book of '953. as in those of BlanchOt to which he often orne. He did it frequc:ntly in Writing ~u Zero, and from the very
refe.rs us, the mo\'cment that I awkwardly and mis13.k~l)t call the t:!king beginning: - 0 one an without form:ll)itics pretend 10 insert his rrcuJom
leave or the exit 110 SOrlie) is underway. And second, Comnu UI€'lOO. whose as 3. writer into the resist3nt medium of language because, behind the
time and tempo accompanied his &ath as no other book. I believe, has lauer, the whole of History stands unified and complete in Ihe manner
e\"er kept w:t!ch over its author. of a Natural Order."~ And again in Cornall Lucida: "this couple who I
know loved each other, I realiu: it is love-as-treasure that is going to
• disappear forever; for once I am gone, no one will any longer be able
to testify to this: nothing will remain bul an indifferent Nature. This is a
For a finl and a last book, WriJing Degra Zero and Camenl u«ida are laceration so intense, so intolerable, that, alone against his century, Michelet
fortunatc tides. A terrible fortune, vacillating terribly betw«n chance and conceived of History as lovc's Protest. "f These capicalletters that I myself
predestination. I like 10 think of Roland Bartha now, as I endure this used out of mimetism, he tOO played with, in order to mime and, already,
sadness, that which is mine today and that which 1 always thought I felt 10 qUOte, They are quotation marks ("this is how you say"), which, far
in him, a sadness that was ch«rful yet weary, desperate, lonely, refined, from indicating an hypostatization, actually lift up and lighten, c.xpressing
cultivated, epicurean, SO incredulous in the end, always letting go without disillusionmc.nt and incredulity. I believe, in the end. that hedid not believe
clinging, endless, fundamental and yet disappointed with the essential. I in this opposition (NaturclHistory), or in any others. He would use them
like to think ofhim in spiteofthe sadness as someone who never renounced only for the time of a passage. Later,l would like to show that the concepts
any ple;lsures (jouisult/cel bUl, so to speak, treated himself to thcm all. And thai seemed the most squarely opposed, or opposahle, were put in play by
I fed certain-as families in mourning naively say-thai he would have him, the onefor the other, in a metonymic composition. This light way of
liked this thought. Or to put it differently, the image of the I of Barthcs mobilizing concepts by playing them against one another could frustrate
would have liked this thought, the imagc of the I of B:mhes that Barthes a cert....in logic while at the same time resisting it with the greatest force,
inscribed in me. though ncithcr he nor I is completely in it. I tell myself the greatest force of play.
now that Ihis image likes this thought in me, that it rejoices in it here
and now, that it smites at me. Ever since reading Camero u/cida, Roland
Barthes's mother, whom I never knew, smiles at me at this thought, as :U i· Roland Jil,rdlC:S. Wmml Dq;r« 7.no. minI. Anneue uven ~nJ Colin Smith (New
Y(>fk: Hill all,1 Wallg, IgSj), 9-10 (here..fler abbre~;all~d:u IVDZ).
everything she breathes life into and revives with pleasure. She smiles at
5· RllIand B:tnhes. C,,_I~itJa· Rrj«tiotrlfHIl'/wwgrtIpIo" 1'-"11$. Rieh.1rd I-Iowml
him and thus in me since, let's say, the Winter Carden Photogt:lph, since (New York: Hill ~lld W~nll' 1911'), 9'! (hereafter abbreviated ~~ CL). The FU:rI(~h till"
the mdiant invisibility ofa look that i.ledescribes to us only asclear,soclear. is u rltumbrr rl#;" (P~ri,: Sellil, 1980).
38 CIIAPTU ON~ IOI.AHD llAU'HRII J9
hidden (too obvious), rather than by the great themc.'>, subjects, theories, the very c:ltegory of the punctum, lit least as it is put to work in Camera
or stralegies of writing Ih3t, for a quarter of a century, I thought I knew Lucida. If we were to bring together tWO different aspects or exposures
and could easily recognize throughout the \'arious "periods" of Roland of the same concept., then it would appear that the punClum aims at me
. +' Barthes (whal hecall«l"phases" and "genres" in Roland Bartha by Rolona at the instant and place where I aim at it; it is thus that the punctuated
~f / Barthes). J was searching like him, as him, for in the situation in which I photograph pricks me, points m~n its minute surface, the same point
.J f ",\have been writing since his death, a certain mimetism is at once a dut.X.C!Q.. divides ofitsc:1~ this double punctuation disorganizes right from the start
~ _tt' ~ ke him into oneself, ro identi with him in order lO let him speak within both the unary and the desire that is ordered in it. Fim exposure: "It is
,l fT oncse, to m and f: ithfull to re resent him} an t c worSl this element that rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and
I" A"i of temptnions, the mOSl indecent and most murderous. The gift and the pierces me. A Latin word c:.xists to designate this wound. this prick, this
revocation of the gift, just try to choose. Like him, I was looking for the mark made by a pointed inslrument: the word suits me all the better in
freshness ofa reading in relation to detail. His texts are familiar to me but I that ..." (CL, 16). (This is the form of what I was looking for, something
don't yet know them-that is my certainty-and this is trucof all writing thatsuiuhim, that concerns only him;asalways, he claims to be looking for
that maners to me. This word "freshness" is his and it plays an essential wh:u comes 10 him and suits him, what agrees with him and fits him like
role in the axiom;1tics of Wriling Degree Zuo. The interest in detail was a garmenti and even ifit is a ready~made garment, and only in fashion for
also his. Ben 'amin saw in the anal tic enlar ement of the fra meO[ or a certain time, it" must conform to the inimitablehob,ius of a unique body;
minute signifier a pgint 0 intersection betwet:n the era of psychoanalysis thus to choose one's words, whether new or very old, from the storeroom
6. The word _,t an be hu,d hen' and in what rQ/lowl1n X\'uafdifTc'OlIKn_:u linC', Q Wall'" Bc:n}3min. 1'1><: Work of An ;n thC' Agc: cl McclAniai
JU.",._-.
Rcprodl.lCtion.~ in
lnn$. Harry Zobn (N..... YO<"lt: s.:hoc:kOl Boo4. .969)• .>. M'.
tl"&«., rcarun-. td"c-cn«. dl1ll.lght. or C¥Cft Q\u.oa.1 ...-t:c.-T_
1l0l.ANP IAIlTIlU ,p
oflanguages, 3S one picks out :t garment, taking everything into account: extreme rclinement of the civility he: locates, in Camera u,rida and while
the season, fashion, place, fabric, shade. and cut.) MThe word suits me all speaking of his mother, at the limits of the moral and even :l1>o\e it. It
the better in that it also refers tathe notion of punctuation, and l:w:cIu~ the is a suppleness that is at once li«, linked, and diliie, unlinked, flowing,
photogrOlphs I am speaking of are in effect punctuated. sometimes eve:n shrewd, as one says of writing or of the mind. In the liaison as wdl as in
speckled with these sensiti\'e points; precisely, these marks, these wounds the undoing of the liaison, it never excludes accuracy, what is JUSt right
are: so many poinu. This second element that will disturb the Sludium I liunem:l-or justice; it must have secretly se:rved him, I imagine, even in
shall therefore call punctum; for punctum is also: sting, speck, cut, little the impossible choices. The conceptual rigor of an artifact remains supple
hole-and also a cast of the dice. A photograph'spunctum is that accident and playful here, and it lasts the time of a book; it will be uscfulto others
that pricks me. points me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me)" (C/.., 26- but it suits perfectly only the one who signs it, like an insrtument th:lt
27). This parenthesis docs not enclose an incidental or s«ondary thought: can't be lent to anyone, like the unique history of all instrument. For ;'Ibovc
as it often does. it lowers the \'oicc-as in an aside--out of a sense of all, and in the lirst place, this apparcnt opposition vtuJiumlpunctum) d()e~
modesty. And elsewhere, se\'cral p.1ges later, anoth~ exposu". "Having not forbid bUl, on the contrary, f:lcilitates a cenain composition between
thus reviewed the docile interem that certain photogmphs awaken in me, I the two concepts. What is to be heard in "composition"? Two things
deduced that thcJ/tuiium, in so far as it is not traversed,lashed,striped by a that compose: together. First, sep3rated by an insuperable limit, the tWO
detail (punctum) thatauract.sor distresses me, engenders a very widespread concepts compromise with one another. They compose together, the one
lYPC of photograph (the most widespread in the world), which we might with the other, and we will later recognize in this a Mnonymic operation;
fl
fl
all the unary phologroph (CL. .10). the "subtle bcyond of the punallm, the uncoded beyond, compose:s with
the flalways coded" of the studium (CL. 59,51). It belongs to it without
• belonging to it and is unlOCatable within it; it is ne\'er inscribed in the
homogeneous objecti\·ity of the framed space but instead inh.. bits or,
His manner, the way in which he displays, plays with. and interprets the rather, haunb it: "it is an addition (supplEment!: it is what I add to the
p.1ir s/tldiumlp,mctuffl. all the while explaining what he is doing by gi\'ing photogmph and whot is f10"~ the leM already rh~re" (CL, 55). We are prey
us his flores-in atl of this we will I,Her hear the music. This m.. nner to the ghostly power of the supplement; il is this un locatable site thai
is unmistakably his. He makes the opposition sllfdiumlplfflctum, :llong gives rise: to the specter. "The SpEctator is ourselves, all of us who glance:
with the app3rent "versus" of the slash, appear slowly and cautiously throu h collections of hOlO ra hs-in magazines and new p.1l>crs, in
in a new context, without which, it seems, they would have had no books, albums, archives.... And the person or thing photographed is the:
chance of appearing. He gives to them or he welcomes this chance. The target, the referent, a kind of little simulacrum, any ~Idolo" emitted by
inu~rprct:nion can 3t lirst appear somewhat anificial, ingenuous, elegant the object. which I should like to call the Spt'ctrtlm of the PhQtograph.
perhaps, but specious, for example, in the passage from the "point" to th(' because: this word retains, through its root, trelation to 'spectacle' and
"pointing mc"lme poind"1 to the "poignant,fl but little by linle it imposes adds to it that rather terrible thing that is there In every photogra h:
its necessity without concealing the artifact under some putative n:tlUre. the return 0 t e ea .. 9. As soon as p"m;l"m ceases to op~
It demonstrates its rigor throughout the book, and this rigor Ixcomes the Itud;um, .. 11 the while remaining heterogeneous to ii, as soon as we
indistinguishable from its productivity, from its performative fecundity. can no longer distinguish here between two places, Contents, or things,
He makes it yield the greatest amount of me:ming, ofdescriptive or .. n:1lytie it is not entirdy subjugated to a concepr, if by "concept" we mean a
power (phenomenological, structural, and beyc;md). The rigor is never prcdieative determination that is distinct and opposable. This concept
rigid. In fact, the supple is .. category that I take to be indispensable to any of a ghost is as scarcely grasp.1ble in its self len pt'r..-otmt'l as the ghost
descripti<1ll of Banhcs's manners. This virtue of suppleness is practiced of a concept. Neither life nor death, but the haunting of the one by the
without the least trace of eitlu::r labor or labor's dfacemenL He never did other. The "versus" of the conce tual 0 position is as unsubstantial as :a
without il, whether in theorization, writing strategies, or social intercourse:. camera's click. YLifrIDeat1r: the paradigm is r uce (0 a simple die' the I
and it can even be: read in the graphics of his writing, whieh I read as the one separatiog tbe initial pose (mm tb,. 6031 print M(C'- 92). Ghas-IS: thc
CIlAl'TlTt QNII 1l.0LANO IlAIl.TJtI!.$ 43
more and more the pristine freshness of discourse" (IVDZ, 78). It is nOt a
queslion here of vanquishing literature but of preventing it from neatly
•
and c1e\'t:r1y sealing up the. singular and flawless wound (nothing is more Two infidelities,3n impossiblcchoice: on the one hand. not to say anything
unbearable o~ Iaugliable than all rileexp.:eSsions of guilt in mourning, all that comes back to oneself, to one'S own voice, to remain silent, or :H the
irs inevit.1ble spc'ctacles). vcry least to let oneself be accompanied or preceded in counterpoint by
the friend's voice. Thus. out of zealous devotion or gratitude, out of ap-
• probation as well, 10 be content with JUSt quoting, with just accompanying
that which more or less directly comes back or returns to the Olher, to
To writ~to him. to prest:nt to the dead friend within oneself the gift let him speak, to efface oneself in front of and to follow his speech, and
of his innocence. For him, I would have wanted to avoid, and thus spare to do so right in front of him. But this excos of fidelity would end up
him. the double wound ofspeaking of him, here and now, as one speaks of saying and exchanging nothing. It returns to death. It points to death.
one of the living or ofone of the dead. In both eases J disfigure, I wound, sending death back tocleath. On theot er an , by .. voidin all guotation,
I put to sl«p. or I kill. But whom? Him? No. Him in me? In us? In all identlfiCation.all rapproch;nt even, so that what is addressed to or
you? But what does this mean? That we rem3in among ourselves? This s~ken of Roland &:rthes truly comes from the other, from the living
is true but still a bit too simple. Roland B:mho looks at us (inside each friend, one risks m.aking him disappear again. as if one could add more
of us, so that each of us can then say that Bartho's thought, memory. and death to, death and thus indecently pluralize it. We are left then with
friendship concern only us), and we do not do as we please with this look. having to do and not do bot~ at once. with having to correct one infidelity
e\'en though each of us has it at his disp:tsaJ, in his own way, according to by the other. From o~ death, the other: is this the uneasiness that told me
his own place and history. It is within us but it is not ours; we do not have to begin with a plural?
it available to us like a moment or part ofour interiority. And what looks
at us may be indifferent, loving, dreadful, grateful. attenth'e, ironic, silc.nt.
bored. reserved, fervent, or smiling. a child or already quite old; in short.
•
it can give us any of the innumerable signs of life or death that we might Already, and often, I know that I have wriuenforllim (I always say "him,~
draw from the circumscribed reserve of his texts or our memory. to write, to address. or to avoid "him"); well before these fragments. For
him: but I insist hereon recaJling, for him. that there is today no rCSp«t, no
• living respect, that is, no living attention paid to the other, or to the name
alone now of Roland Barthes, that does not have to expose itself without
What I would have wanted to avoid for him is neither the Novel nor respite, without weakness, and without mercy to what is tOO transparent
the Photograph but something in both that is neither life nor death, not to be immediately exceeded: Roland Barthes is the name of someone
something he himself said before I did (and I will return to this--always who can no longer hear or hear it. And he will receive nothing of what I
the promise of return, a promise that is not just one of the commonplaces say here of him, for him, to him, beyond the name hut still within it, 3S I
of composition). I will nOt succeed in avoiding this, preci\tlx..becausc this pronounce his namc that is no longer his. This living attention here comes
poinl always Icu itself be reappropriated by the fabric it tears toward the to tear itself toward that which, or the one who, can no longer receive iii it
other, beC:lUSC the studied veil always mends its way. But might it not rushes toward the impossible. Bm ifhi5 name is no longer his. was it ever?
be better not to get there, not to succeed, and 10 prefer, in the end, the I mean sim )ly. uniquely? --
spcct:.lcle of inadequacy, failure, and, especially here, truncation? (Is it not
derisory, naive, and downright childish to corne before the dead to ask for
their forgiveness? Is there any meaning in this? Unless it is the origin of
•
meaning itself? An origin in the scene you would make in front of others The impossible sometimes, by chance, becomes possible: as a utopia. This
who observe you and who also playoff the dead? A thorough analysis of is in fact wh:u he said before his death. though for him, of the Winter
the "childishness~ in question would here be necessary but not sufficient.) Garden Photograph. 6cyond analogies, "it achieved for me, utopically.
,6 1l0LM.D IIAaTH u
IM;m ibk science 0 th~ un; U~ bdng" (CL. 71). He said this uniqudy, of imeriorization were al once more and less powerful, powerful in an
turned toward hi~ r and not towar t c: other. But the poignant olhn way. and, in an orhn way. more and less certain of themselves. More
singularity does not contradict the generality, it does not forbid it from inasmuch as they were not yet disrurbed or interrupted by the deathly
having the force of law, but only arrows it, marks, and signs it. Singular silence of the other that always comes to recall the limits of a speaking
plural. Is there, then. already in the first language, in thehrsl rnuk,anothcr interiority. Less inasmuch as the appearanc~ the initiative, the response,
possibility, another chance beyond the pain ormis plural? And what about or the unforeseeable intrwion of the living other also recalls this limit.
metonymy? And homonymy? Can we suffer from anything else? Could Living, Roland Barthes cannot be reduced to ,hat which each or all of us
we speak without them? c:an think, bcliev~ know. and already recall of him. But once dead, might
he not be so reduced? No, but the chances of me illusion will be greater
• and lesser, other in any case.
What we might playfully call the mathesir s;ngu/oro, what is achieved for
him wUlopicallyM in front of the Winter Cardc:n Photograph, is impossible
•
and yet takes plttcc, utopically, metonymic.ally, as soon as it marks, as soon
"Unqualifiable" is another word I borrow from him. Even if I transpose
as it writes, even "before" language. Sannes spe:lks of utopia at least twice
and modify it, it remains marked by what I read in Camero Lucida.
in Camero ulcidiJ. Both times between his mother's death and his own-
;'Unqualifiable" there designated a way of life-it was for a short time
that is, inasmuch as heentrusLS it towriting: "Once she was dead I no longer
his, after his mother's dea'h-a life ,hat already resembled death, one
had any re3S0n to atrune myse.lfto the progress of the superior Life Force
death before the other, more than one, which it imitated in advance. This
(the race, thespc:dcs). My particularity could never again universalize itstlf
does not prevent it from having been an accidental and unforeseeable
(unless, utopically, by writing, whose project henceforth would become the
death, outside: the realm of calculation. Perhaps this resemblance is wh3t
unique goal of my life)" (CL. 7:1).
allows us to transpo~ the unqualifiable in life into death. Hence thepl'jch~
(the soul)... It is said that mourning, by its gradual labor, slowly erases
• pain; I could not, I cannot believe this; because for me, Time eliminates
the emotion of loss (l do not weep). that is all. For the rest, everything has
When I say Roland Harthes it is certainly him whom I name, him beyond
r~mained motionless. For what I ha\'e lost is not a Figure {the Mother), but
his name. ut since e himself"'iS"""iiow Inaccessible to IS ~lIation,
a being; and not a being, but aqUlI/ily (3 soul)= not the indispemable, but the
since this nomination cannot become a vocation, address, or apostrophe
irreplaceable. I could live without the Mmher (as we: all dQa.¥.!2!ler or later);
(supposing mat this possibility revoked today could have evU'been pure),
but what life remained would be absolutely and entir~unqlUllifialik
it is him in me that I name, toward him in m~ in you,. in us that. I
(without quality)" (CL. 75)...A soul~-come from the other.
pass t roug is name. What happens around him and is said about him
rei'nirns &twtt:n us.~ourning began at this point. But when? For even
before the unqualifiable event called death, interiority (of Ihe other in me. •
in you, in us) had already begun its work. With the first nomination. it \
preceded death as another death would have done. The name alone makes La chambrt: c/a;r~. rhe light room, no doubt says more than camna lucida.
possible the pluralilY of deaths. And even if the rehn.ion between them the name of the apparatus anterior to photography that Barthes opposes to
were only analogical, lhe analogy would be singular, withoul common camera obscura. I can no longer not associate the word "c1ari!}'," wherever
measure with any other. Before death withaUl analogy or sublation, before it appears, with what he says much earlier of his mothC;'s face when she
death without name or semence, before that in front of which we have was a child, orthe distinctness or luminosity, the "clarity of her face" (CL.
nothing to say and must re,nain silent, before that which he calls "my total, 6g). And he soon adds: ..the naive attltude of her hands, the place she had
undialectical death" (CL, 7:l), before the last de:nh. all the other movements docilely taken without either showing or hiding herself."
• would not be reducing the specificity of what he says about photography
were we to find it pertinent dsewhere: I would even say everywhere. It is a
Without either showing or hiding herself. NOl the Figure of the Mother matter of at once acknowledging the possibility ofsus >endin the Referent
but his mother. There should om be, there shoflld not be, any metOnymy Inot the reference I, wherever it is ound, indu ing in photogr3p y, :llld of
in this case, for love protests against it ("I could live without the Mother"). suspending a n.a~ve conception of the Referent, one that has so oftell gone
unquestioned.)
•
WithOllteither showing or hiding herself. This is what look place. She had
•
already raken her pbce "docilely," without initiating the slightest activity, Here is a brief and very preliminary classification drawn simply from
according to the most gentle ptlssivity, and she neither shows nor hides her- common sense: there are, in the lime that relates us to texts and to their
self. The possibility orlhis impossibility derails and shatters all unity, and presumed, nameable, and authorize signatories, at least three possibilities.
this is love; it disorganizes all studied discourses, all theoretical systems The "author" can already be de.1d, in the usual sense of the term, at
and philosophies. Thcy must decide between presence and absence, here the moment we ~ to read "him," or when this reading orders us
and there. what revcals and what conceals itself. Here, there, the unique to write, as we say, about him, whether it be about his writ'ings or
other, his mother, appears, that is [0 say, without appearing, for the other about himself. Such authors whom we never "knew" living, whom we
can appear only by disappearing, And his mother "knew" bow to do this never met or had a chance to like or love (or the opposite), make up
so innocently, because il is the "quality" ofa child's "soul" that he deciphers by far the greatest number. This asymbiosis does not exclude a certain
in the pose of his mmher who is not posing. Psyche without mirror, He modality of the contemporaneous (and vice versa), for it tOO implies :.l
says nothing more and underscores nothing, degree ofinterioriz.1tion, an a priori mourning rich in possibility, a whole
experience of absence whose originality I cannot really describe here. A
• S(:cond possibility is that the authors are living when we are reading them.
or when this reading orders us to write about them. We can, knowing
Hespcaks, moreover,ofdarity as the "evidential power" ofthe Photograph that tbey are alive. and this illvolves a bifurcation of the same possibility,
(CL, 47). But this carries both resence and absence; it neither shows nor know them or not, and once having met them, "love" them (lr not. And
hi,4es itself. tn the passage on the camera lucida. a'mhes quotes 613;;;hot: the situation can change in this regard; we can meet rhem after having
'The essence ofthe image is to be altogether outside, without intimac , and begun to read them (I have such a vivid memory of my first meeting
yet more inaccessible and mysterious rnan the thought 0 t e mnermost with Banhes), and there are any number of means or communication
bdng; without signification, yet summoning up the depth of any possible to bring about the transition: photographs, correspondence, hearsay, tape
meaning; unrevealed yet manifest, having the absence-as-presence that recordings, and so on. And then there is a "'third" situation: at the death
I constitutes the lure and fascination of the Sirens" (CL, 106).8 and after the death of those whom we also "knew," met, loved, and so
fOrth. Thus, I have had occasion to write about or in the wake of those
• texts whose authors have been dead long before I read them (for example,
Plato or John of Patlnos) or whose authors are still living at the time I
He insists, and rightly so, upon the adherence of the "photographic write, and it would seem that this is always the most risky, But what 1
re.ferent": it does not relate to a present or to a real bur, in an omerway, thought impossible, indecent, :and unjustifiable, what long ago and more
tothe other, and each time differently according to the type of "image," or less secretly and resolutely 1 had promist..d myself never to do (Ollt of a
whether photographic or not. (Taking all differences into account, we conc(:rn for rigor or fidelity, if you will, and because it is in this (3$(: too
serious), was to writefollowin the death, not after, not long after the de3th
hy returning to ii, but Just following the death, '1l!Pn or 011 the occasion o(
-
the death. at the commemorative g3therings and tributes, in the writings
-
kOLANl> • ..,kTHU 51
"in memory" of those who whilt: living would have been my friends, still
preSt:nt enough [0 me that somt: "declaration," indeed some analysis or
•
"study," would seem at mat moment completely unbearable. For what was earlier called "following the death," "on the occasion of the
But then what, silence:? Is this not another wound, anomer insult? death," we have a whole series oftypical solutions. The worst ones--or the
To whom? worst in each ofthem-are either ooSt: or derisory, and yet so common: still
Yes, to whom and of what would we be making a gift? What arc to maneuver, to speculate, to try to profit or derive some benefit, whether
we doing when we exchange theSt: discourses? Over what are we keeping subtle or sublime, to draw from the dead a supplement:uy force to be
watch? Are we trying to negate death or retain it? Are we trying to put turned against the living. to denounce or insult them more or less directly,
things in order, make amends, or St:u.le our accounts, to finish unfinished to authorize and legitimate oneself, to raise oneself to the very heights
business? With the other? With the others outside :md inside ourselves? where we presume death has placed the other beyond all suspicion. There
How many voices intersect, observe, and correct one another, argue with are ofcourse lesser offenses, but offenses nonetheless: to p:\y homage with
one a.nother, passionately embrace or pass by one another in silence? Are an essay that treats the work or a pan of the work bequeathed to us,
we going to seek somt: final evaluation? For example, to convince ourselves to talk on a theme that we confidently believe would have interested the
that the death never took plac~aut.is.ic.r.exersible and)'ll:ou:~ed author who has passed away (whose tastes,curiosities,and projecu should,
from a return of the dead? Or are we going to make the dead our ally it seems, no longer surprise us). Such a treatment would indeed point out
("thedea<rwith me''}', to take him by our side, or even inside ourselves, to the debt, but it would also pay it oock; and one would lailor one's remarks
show off some secret contract, to finish him off by exalting him, to reduce according to the context. For example, in Po/tiqtlt', to stress the essential
him in any case to what can still be contained by a liter:uy or rhetorical role Banhes's worKs have played and will continue to play in the open field
performance, one that attempts to turn the situation to its advantage by of litet~ture and literary theory (Ihis is legitimate, Ol\e has to do it, and I
means of stratagems that can be analyzed interminably, like all the ruSt:s tim doing it now). And then, perhaps, to undertake some analysis, as an
of an individual or coll«tive "w~f mourning"? And this so called exercise made possible and inAuenced by Barthes (an initiative that would
"work" remains here the name of Jl problem. For if mourning works, gain approval in us through the memory ofhim). For example,. to analyze a
it does so only w dialeaize death, a death that Roland Batthes CQfI~d genre or diSCl,lrsivecode,or the rules ofa particular social arrangement, and
"undialectical" n could do no morc than await my wtal, undialectical to do so with his meticulousness and vigila.nce, which, as uncompromising
death") (el., 72). as they were, still knew how to yield with a certain disabused comp.1ssion,
a nonchalant elegance that would make him give up the fight (though I
sometimes saw him get angry, for reasons of ethics or lidelily). But what
• "genre"? Well, for example, what in this century has come to replace the
funeral oration. We could study the corpus of declarations in newspapers,
JA piece rmorct'Qu] of myself like a piece of the dead [mortJ. tn saying on radio and television; we could analyze the recurrences. the rhetorical
"the deaths" are we attempting to dialcctize them or, as I would want, the constraints, the politic:ll perspectives, the exploitations by individuals and
contrary-though we are here ata limit where wanting is, more than ever, groups, dle pretexts for taking a stand, for thre.1tening, intimidating. or
» found wanting. Mournin and transference. In a discussion with Ristat reconciling. 0 am thinking of the wCt'.kly newspaper that, upon Sartre's
about the "practice of writing" and se -ana ysis, J remember him saying: death, dared to put on trial those who deliberately, or simply because they
"Self-analysis is not transft:rential, and it is here that psychoanalysts would were away. had said nothing or had said the wrong thing. Using their
perhaps disagree." No doubt. For there is, no doubt, still transference in photographs 10 bring them to justice, the newspaper accused them all
self-analysis, particularly when it proceeds through writing and literature, in the headline of still being afraid of Samt:.) In its classical form, the
but il plays in an other way, or plays mor~nd the difference in play funeral oration had a good side. especially whe.n it permitted one to c:llI
is essential here. When we take the possibility of writing into account, out directly to the dead, sometimes very informally Ituray"j. This is of
another concept of transference is needed (that is, if there ever was oney course a supplementary fiction, for it is always the dead in me, always
5' .OLAND a"kTIlU
the olhers sunding around the coffin whom I call out to. Bm becau~ of was in me: (however naive it might be): a dc:speralc resistance: to
its CariC3.fUrW excess, Ihe overstatement of this rhetoric at least pointed a~w~i\'e s Sle . For each time. ha~~r1ed 10 an)' such
OUi that we ought not to remain among our~lves. The interactions of bnguage 10 whatever degree., each time: I felt it hard('ning and
the living must be interrupted, the veil must be torn toward Ihe other, thereby (('nding to reduction and reprimand. 1 would ge:ntly ka... e il
the other dead in lU though other still, and the religious promi2S of an and $C'Ck dsc:whc:re: I btgan to speak. differently. (CL. 8)
aftc=rlifc could indttd still grant this ~as if."
The beyond of this journey is no doubt the great headland and enigma
• of the Referent, as it has been called for the past twenty years, and death
is clearly not in this for nothing (it will be nuessary to return [0 this in
The dt:llths of Roland Barthcs: his deaths, that is, those of his rd:llivcs. another tone). In any ca.sc:, as early as Writing D~gr~~ uro, all this passes
those deaths Ihat must have inhabited him, situ3t'ing places and solemn through the Nove:! and "The Novel is a Death" (WDZ, 38}--the beyond
momeoL", orienting lombs in his inner space (ending-and prooobly even ofliter:nure as literature, literary "modernity," Iiter:1ture producing itself
beginning-with his mother's death). Hu deaths, Ihost: he lived in me and producing its essence as its own disappearance. showi~g and hiding
plural, Ihas«= he must have linked togeth('r, trying in vain to "dialcetizc" itself at the same tunc 1Ma'lrarmc, Blanchot, among others): "Modernism
them before the "lotal~ and "undialectical" de:lth; th(R deaths that always begins with the: ~arch for a Literature that is no longer possible. Thus we
form in our lives a terrifying and endless ~ries.. But how did he "live" find, in the avel too, this machinery directed towards both destruction
them~ No answer is more impossible or forbidden. Yet a certain movement and resurrection, and typical of the whole of modern an.... The lovel
had quickened in those last years; I could feel a sort of autobiographical is a Death; it transforms life into destiny. a memory into a useful act,
acceleration, as ifhe were saying, '" feel that I ha\'e little time left." I must duration inro an orienrated and meaningful time" (WDZ, 38-39), And
concern myself first with this thought of a death that begins, like thought it is the modern possibility of photography (whether an or technique
and like death, in the memory of the idiom. While still living, he wrote matters little here) that combines death and the re:ferent in the same
a death of Roland B:lrthes by himself. And, finally, his deaths, his texts system. It was not for the first time, and this conjugation of death and
on death, everything he wrote, with such insistence on displacement, on the referent did nOt have to wait for the Photograph to have an essential
death, on the dleme of Death, if you will, if indeed there is such a theme. relationship to reproductive technique, or to technique: in gener:rl, but the
From the Novel to the Photograph, from Wn'ting fkgra Uro (1953) to immediate proof given by the photographic app.'lTams or by the structUre
Coma'Q LlU:ido (t9&), a certain thought of death set everything in motion, ofthernnoins it leaves behind arc irreduciblee\'ents, ineffaceably original.
or rather set it traveling, on a SOrt of journey toward the beyond of all It is the failure, or at any rate the limit, of all that which, in language,
c10sm systems. all forms of knowledge, all the new scientific positivisms literature, and the other arts s«med to permit grandiose theories on
whose no\elty always tempted theAt¢\wrt'Tand discoverer in him, though the gttleral suspension of the Refe=:rent, or of .....hat was classified, by a
only for a time, the time: of a passage, the time ofa contribution that. ::Ifter SOmetimes gross simplification, under that vast and vague=: category. By
him, would become indispensable. And yet he was already elsewhere, and the timc=:-at the instant-th:lt the punctum rends space, the. refere=:nce and
he said so; he would speak openly about this with a calculated modesty, death are in it together in the photograph. But should WI:: say reference
with a politeness thai revl::aled a rigorous demand. an uncompromising or referent? Analytical precision must here be equal to the stakes, :rnd the
ethic. like an idiosyncratic destiny naively assumed. In the beginning of photograph puts this precision to the test: in the photograph, the referl::nt
Com~f"(J Lucida he tells-and tells himsclf-ofhis "discomfort" :l[ always is noticeably llbse:nt. suspcndable, vanished into the unique past time of its
eVent, but the reference to this referent, call it the intentional movement of
being the subject torn betw~n two bnguages, one expressive, ~cference(sinceB:rrthesdoesin fact appeal 10 phenomenology in thisbook),
lhe other critical; and at the heart ofthis criticallangu3ge, be- Implies just as irreducibly Ihe h:lving-heen of:l unique and invariable
tween several diswur.sc:s. those: ofsociology, of semiology, and of referent. It implies the "re=:turn of the dead" in the \'ery Structure of both
p$)'cho;lnal)'sis--but (Itdl myself] that, by ultimate: dissatisfaction its image ~nd the phenome=:non of its image. This doc:s not happen in
with all of them, I ...."as bo:aring wil.JlCS5 to the: only sure thing thai other t'ypc:s of images or discourses, or indeed of mark.s in general, :rtlcast
CHAPTU O"'I! .... ~THllS
"
~OI.AN"O
not in the same way, the implication and form of the reference taking
very differem paths. From the beginning ofCamnu Lucida the "disorder"
•
introdu~ by the photogr.. ph is largely attributed to the "unique time" I shall not make of this an allegory, even Ie» a met:lphor, but I recall
of its referent, a time that does not let itself be reproduced or pluralized, that it was whil~ trawling that I spent the most time alone with Banhes.
and whose referential implication is inscribed OJ $lKh rignl on the very Sometimes head to head, I mean face to face: (for example on the:. train from
structure of the phoc-ogram, regardless of the number of its reproductions Paris to Llle or Paris to Bordeaux), and sometimes side by side, separated
and even the artifice of its composition. Whence "this stubbornness of by an aisle (for example on the trip from Paris to New York to Baltimore
the Referent in always being there" (CL. 6)... It is as if me Photograph in 1966). The time of our travels was surely not the same:., and yet it was
always carries its referent with itself, both affected by the same amorous or also the same, and it is necessary to accept these twO absolute ce.rt2inties.
funereal immobility, ... In short, the referent adheres. And this singular Evtn if! wanted or was able to give an account, to speak of him as hc was
adherence ..." (CL. 5-6). Though it is no longer lh"~ (present, living, for me (the voice, the timbre, the forms of his anention and distraction,
real), itsllaving.h«n·lhu~ presently a part of the referential or intenlional his polite way of being there or elsewhere, his face, hands, clothing, smile,
structure of my relationship to the photogram. the return of the rderent his cigar, so many features that I name without describing, since this is
indeed takes the form of a haunting. This is a "return of the dead," whose impossible here), even if I tried to reproduce what to(tk.pI;l«.._what pbce
spectral arrival in the vcr s~ce of the hoc- ir'llll iodesd reK.m~t would be reserved for the reserve? What place for the long periods of
o 3n emission or em.. n:uion. Already a sort of hallucinatin meton my: silence, for what was left unsaid out of discrelioll, for whal was of no use
it is somet mg sc, a piece come frolll the other (from the referent) that bringing up, either because it was tOO well known by both of us or clse
finds itself in me, before me, btl;alSQjn m~llke..a piece of me (~lne.-e the infinitely unknown on either side? To go on speaking of this all alone,
refe--;:entiaT implication is also intentional and noematic; it belongs nnt,her after the death of the other, to sketch out the least conjecture or risk the
to the sensible body nor to the medium of the photogr..m). Moreover, the least interpretation, feels to me like an endless insult or wound-and yet
"target,'" the "referent," the "~idolon emitted by the object," the "Sp«trum" also a duty, a dut}' toward him. Yet I will nOt be able to carry it out,:lt le..st
(CI- 9), can be me, seen in a photograph of myself: '" then experience a not right here. Alwa s th~romise of return.
micro·version of death (of parenthesis): I am truly becoming a specter.
~ Photographer knows this Vtry well, and himself ftars (if only for •
commercial reasons) this death in which his gesture will tmbalm me.... I
have become Total-Image, which is to say, Death in person.... Ultimately, How to believe in the contemporary? It would be e.asy to show that the
what I am Sttking in the photograph taken ofme (the 'intention' according limes of those who Sttm to belong to the same epoch, defined in tenns
to which I look al it) is Death: Death is tht eidos of that Photograph" (CL. of something like .a historical fr.ame or social horizon, remain infinitely
14- 15). heterogeneous and, to tell me truth, completely unrelated to one another.
One can be very sensitive to this, though sensitive at the same time, on
another level, to a being-together th.at no difference or differend can
• threaten, This being-together is not distributed in any homogeneous way
in our experience, There are knors, points of great condensation, places
Carried by this relationship, drawn or attracted by the pull and character of high valuation, paths of decision or interpretation that arc virtually
ofil (Zug, Ballg), by the rcference to the spectral referent, Roland Banhcs unavoidable. It is there, it seems, that the law is produced. Being-together
traversed periods, systems, modcs, "phases," and "genres"; he marked refers to and recognizes itselrthere, even though it is not constituted there,
and punctuated the sludium of each, p.1ssing lhrough phenomenology, Contrary to whal is often thought, the individual "subjects" who inhabit
linguistics, literary mathesis, scmiosis, structural analysis, and so on. His the zones most difficult to avoid arc not authoritarian "superegos" with
first mo\'e was 10 recogniu in each of these their necessity or richness, power at their disposal, assuming that Power can be at one's disposal.
their critical value and light, in orde:.r to turn them against dogmatism. Like those for whom these zones become una\'oidable (and this is first
56 CII"PTIlIl ONII .OLAND MUIIU 57
of all their hinory), they inhabit them, and, rather than ruling there. r~roductive imag~ return to this bt"C:lllSC Rol:lIld Barthc:s is the n3lne
take from them a desire or an image. It is a certain way of relinquishing oflhat which Npoints" mt:, or "points" (to) what I am awkwardly trying to
:luthorit)', a certain freedom in fact, an ack.nowledged relationship 10 their say here. I return to this also in order to show how he himself trcatt:d and
own finitude. which, by an ominous and rigorous paradox, confers on properly signed this simulacrum of an opposition. He first highlighted the
them an additional authority. an inAuence, radiance. or presence that absolute irreducibility of the punctum, what we might call the unicity of
1(::ld5 their ghost to places where they arc:: 001 and from which their ghost the r4.~tiQJ (I appeal to this word so as not to have to choose betwttn
will never return. It is this, in shorl, that maka one always ask, more reference and referent; whal adheres in the photograph is perhaps less the
or less explicitly: What does he or she think about this? Not mat onc referent itself, in the present effectivity of its rality, than tht: implication
is ready to 3gr~ that they are right, 3 priori and in all cases, not that in the reference of iu ha\'ing~bttn.unique). The heterogeneity of the
one 3wail.S :I verdict or bdiev~ in a lucidity wilhout weakn~. but, even punctum is rigorous; its originality can lxar neither conlaminauon nor
bl=fore looking for ii, the image of an evalu:uion, look, or affect im~s concession. And yet. in other places, at oth~r times, Barthc:s accedes 10
itself. It is difficuh to know th~n who addres~s this "imag~" 10 whom. I :lIlother descriptive demand. let's all it ph~nom~noJogiazJ since the book
would likc= to descrilx, pau~ndy and inu:rminably, all the trajectoria of also prt:sents itselfas a phenomenology. He accedes to the requisite rhythm
IhlS address, (:Specially when its reference passes through writing, when of the composition. a musical composition that. to be more precise, I
it then becomes so virtual, invisible, plural. divided, microscopic, mobile, would call contrapuntal. It is indeed n~essary for him to recognize,
infinitesimal, spttular even (since the dc=mand is often reciprocal and the and this is not :I conct$sion. thai the punctum is nOt what it is. This
trajcctory easily lost), punctual. seemingly on the verge of the zero point absolute mher composes with the same, with its absolute other that is
even though its exerci.~ is so powerful and so diverse:. thus not its opposite, with the locus of the same and of the $truJium (it
is the limit of the binary opposition and. undoubtabl.y, of a structural
• an:llysis that the .rfudi"m itself mighl CJlploit). If the punctum is morc or
less than itself, dissymmetrical--to e\'erything and in itself-men it em
Roland Banhes is the n<lmeof 3 friend whom, in the end, beyond a certain invade the field of the: .rtlldium. to which. strictly speaking, it does not
familiarity, I knew \'ery litde, and of whom, it goes without saying, I have belong. It is located, we recall, ~side all fields and codes. As the pl:lce
not read everything, I mean reread, understood, and so on. And my first of irreplaceable singularity and of the unique referential. the punctum
response was most oflc=n certainly one ofapproval,solidarity, and gratitude. irradiates and, what is mOSt surprising, lends itself to metonymy. As soon
Yet not always, it seems, and as insignificant as it may be, I must say this as it allows itselflo be drawn Into a netWork otJiubstilutiortr,"ifcan invade
so as not to give in 100 much to the genre. He W3S, I mean he remains, everything. objects as well as affects. This singularity that is nowhere
one or those of whom I have constantly wondered, for almost twent)' years in Ihe field mobilizes everything everywhe~~'t lurahzes Jtsdl. If'"ilie
now, in a more or less articulated way: What does he think of Ihis? In the phowgr<lp peaJ(s the unique death, the de<lth ufthe unique,this death
prescnt, the p.1.st, the future, the conditional, and so on? Especially, why immediately repeau Ilsclf, as such, and'1s llS:eJreIsewhere. I said that the
not say it, since: this should surprise no one, at the moment of writing. I punctum allows iiselfoobe d~awn into metonymy. Acmally, it induces it,
even told him this once in a letter long ago. <lnd this is its force', or rather than its force (since it exercises no actual
constraint and exists completely in reserve), il5 ny"amu, in other words,
• its power, potentiality, \·irtu<llity, :lnd even iu dissimulation. its latency.
B:lrthes marks this relationship between force (potential or in reserve) and
h opposi~hat
rctl!.!1!..!Q.!hLpois.nant,'· 10 this gair of concepts, this is metonymy at certain intervals of the composition that I must here unjustly
, not one... the ,host of this (Xlir, prmclIlmlswdium. I return to this because condense. '"However ligh~ning·likc irmay be, thepuncmm has,moreor less
p"I1Clrlm seems to say, to let Barthes himselfsay, th~~intof sin ularitX"the potentially, a power of exp.1nsion. This power is often metonymic" eeL,
traversal ofdiscourse toward the uniffileillte "n::ferent" as the irrel!laceable 'Is}· Further: "I had just realized that however immediate and incisive
other, the Qne who was and will no longer lx. who return~ like:: that which it was, Ihe punctum could accommodate a cert:lin I:ttency (bul never any
will never come hack, who m:lrks the return of the de:ld right on the: examination)" eeL, 53}. This metonymic: power is essentially rdaled to Ihe
58 CHAPTU ONI! 59
) his death to the trial ofa studied metonymy. Perhaps, but how do we speak
studi"m that receives ftom it all its movement,even ifit mUSlcontent itself. otherwise and without taking this risk? Without pluralizing the unique
like the "examination," with turning round the point and never j;ening or generalizing what is most irreplaceable in it, his own death? And didn't
down to it.' Henceforth, the relationship between the two concepts is he himself speak right up until the very last moment about his dealh and,
neither tautological nor oppositional, neither dialectical nor in any sense mclonymically, about hisAeathsiOidn't he say what is essential (especially <:b
symmetrical; it is supplementary and musical (contrapuntal). in Roland 8a,.,h~s by RokmJ &",h~, a metonymic title and signature
par excellence) aboul the undccidable vaciHation between "speaking and
• keeping silent ?" And one can .lIso remain silent by spe2kin~ MThe only
W
'thought' I can have is that at the end of this first death, mr..own deathis
The metonymy of the punctum: scandalous as it may be, it allows us to inscri ; belween the two, nmhing;;ore than waiting; I have no Other
s~ 10 speak of the Ilniq~ to speak of and lOiJ.. It yields the trait that resources an_t is irony": 10 speak of the 'noth~ to say': (CL 93). And
relates 10 the unique. The Winter Garden Photograph. which he neilher just before: "The horror is this: nothing to say about the death of one
shows nor hides, which he speaks, is thepulJctum of the entire book._The whom IIQ\'e most, nothing to S;ly about her photogrnph" (CL, 92-93).
mark of this unique wound is nowhere visible as such but its unlocatable
brig!ltness or clarity (that ofhis mother's eyes) irradiates the entire study. II
makes o([hl'S book an irre laCCOlible e\'ent. And ret only a metonymic force
•
can continue to assure a certain generality 10 the discourse and offer it 10 Frirodship: from the few pages at the end ohhe volume that bears this title,
analysis by submilting its concepts to a quasi.instrumemal use. How else: we have no right to lake anything for ourselves." What linked Blanchot [Q
could we, withoul knowing her, be sodeepty moved by what he said aboul Bataille was unique, and Friendship expresses this in an absolutely singular
his mOl her, who was not only the Mother, or a mother, but the only one way. And yet the metonymic force of even the most poignant writing
she was and of whom such a photo was taken "on that day"? How could allows us lor~d these pa~s, which does not mean however to expose them
this be fXlignant to us if a metonymic force, which yet cannot be mistaken ouuide their essential reserve. It lets us think that which it nonetheless
for something that facilitates the movement of identification, were not at never forces open, never shows or hides. Without being able to enter inlO
work? The aherity remains almost intact; that is the condition. I do not put the absolute singularity of this relationship, without forgetting that only
myself in his place, I do not tend to replace his mother with mine. Were I Blanchot could write this and thai only of Bataille could he be s~aking,
10 do so, I could be moved only by Ihe alterity of the without-relation, the
without understanding, or in any case without knowing, we can think
absolute unicity that the metonymic power comes to recall in me without whal is being written here. Though we should not be able to quote, I
effacing it. He is right to protesl against the confusion between she who nonetheless take upon myse.lfthe violence of a quotation, especially ofone
was his mother and the Figure of the Mother, but the metonymic power that has been necessarily truncated.
(one pan for the whole or one na.me for another) will always come to
inscribe both in this relation without relation. How could one agrtt to speak of this friend? Neither in praise
nor in the imer('$l orsome truth. The !raiu ofhisdura.ct('t, the
• forms ofhis existence, the epiKldcs: of his life, cven in keeping
with the search for which he relt himself responsible to the poinl
The deaths of Roland Barthes: because of the somewhat indecent violence
of this plural, one might perhaps think thai I was resisting Ihe unique; I
would have thus avoided, denied, or tried to efface his death. As 3. sign of u). Robnd Ibrthes. RoJiIruI &n,," by RnhmJ &rtJon. trans. Ridsard Howard (Nt... York:
prOtection or protest, I would have in the proct'ss accused and given over Hill and Wang. 1971), 141 (hereafter abbrevUt«l as RB).
II. MJ!uUCt Bbnc:hoc., FrwNhJt;" 112M- EJizabnh RottmlxrJ (Sunfonl: SunfOrd
Un,vtnlly Pr~, '9971, ~ ~,n.rttr abbrt.-~l«l as F). fA!. Dtrucb bttr upbins,
90 T"","," . _ r tltl /'0'.' " a pby on ~ • . . - till /*. -no boal around the bcxh lhe book and IhI- bK ottUOn CIi!hot book (~), whkh IS trIrirdy in .!alia,
buWo...- T"..... htar this li!k-T".IV.)
6" 1I0UtHlllo\IITItU 6,
ofirrcsponsibility. belong to no one. There arc no witncsS<:$, Those is lhe di.scovc:r), of this equivalence:. In frolll of the photograph of
who WC'rI: closest say only what was dose 10 them, nouhe dist:ancc my mother as a child, , tell myself: she is going to die:: I shudder,
that affimlcd itself in Ihis proximity, and distance ceascs as sooo ll$ like: Winnicott's psychotic p.1Iienl, Ou« a carQJrroph~ rhar nllJ aluaJy
presence: ccascs.... We are only looking to fill a void, we cannot occunwl. Whether or not the subject is airclidy dead, evcry photo-
bear the pain: me affirm:ation of this \·oid.... EvcryLhing we graph is this catastrophe. (Cl- ¢)
$3.)' tends 10 vcillhc one affirm:uion: thaI everything must fack
And funh~r on: .. It is berau~ e:ach photograph always contains this
and thai we can remain (Dyal only so long a5 we watch oycr this
imperious sign of my future dC3th th:tt each one, however attached it
f.1ding movemenf. to which something in us thai rcj«ts all memory
set'.ms to be to the excited world of the living, challenges each of us, one
already belongs.
by one, outside of any generality (but not outside of any transcendencer
(CL, 97)·
•
•
tn Camou ul€iJa, the value of inunsity (dynamis, (orcc.Llatcnq). which
I have been following, leads to a neW contrapunCllJ equation, to a new Time:: the metonymy of the instantaneous, the possibility of the narrati\'c
metonymy of metonymy iudf,:I new metonymy of the substitUlivc virtue mignetiud by its own limit. The instantaneous in photo&!aphy, th~
of mcpunctum. And this is Time. For is not Time the ullimat~ resourc~ for snapshol, would it~lr be but the most striking metonymy within the
th~~titution 0 on~ abs(~lut~ instan~ anoth~r... for lhu~pla~ of modern technologica.l age of an older instantane1J:y. Older. even though
the ir!EJ.>lacea~le! the rcplacem~m of this uni ue referem by anO[~at it is ncvc;r foreign to the possibility of t«"~ in gc;neral. Remaining as
is )'l;t another instam, rompletd~ orher and -yet_still the s,:u.llc! Is not time attentive as possible to all the differences, one must be able to s(X'ak of a
me punctual form and force of all me~onymy-iu ;rutllrU trCOtlW? j:k";e punctum in all signs (and re(X'ution or iterability already strucNres il), in
IS a passage wherein the passage from one death to another, from thaI ;;r any discourse; whether literar)' or not, As long as we do not hold to some
Lc:wis Payne to Ihat of Roland Barthes,scems 10 pass (betwttn others,dare naive and Mrealist" rcferentialism, it is the rdation to some uni~ and
onc say) through the Winter G:lrden Photograph, And on Ih~ them~ of irreplaceable referent that int"t'.su us :i'ild animates our most ~nd and
Time. There is here, in short, a terrifying syntax, from which I pick OUI studied readi(lgs: what took pl~only oncc. while dividing itself alre:ldy.
first a singular accord. at the point of transition bctwttn Sand P: MThe in the Slg 15 or in froOl of the lens of mc PJwt'do or Finnt'PfU Wakt'.
photo is handsome, as is the boy" (CL. 96). And here is the passage from the f5iKourg oi/A1t't),oJ or Hegel's Logic. John's Apocalypse or Mallarme's
onc death (0 the other: Coup de dis. The photographic 3p(XIralUs reminds us ulthis. irreducible
refer~nti31 by means ori very powerfulttlescoping.
I now know that there exists anOlher punctum (anOlher Mst.igma_
lum M ) than the "detai!." This new punell",t, which is no longer of
form hut of intensity, is lime, the lacerating emphasis oflhe nomu'
•
(~lhul-htJJ..b«tI~). its pure repre:scntaTIon. The melonymic forc~ thus divides the referential trait, suspends tbe ~
In 1865, )'oung Le:wis Payne tried 10 assassinate Secrerary referent and leaves it to be desired, while still m:lintaioing the reference, It
OfStal(' W. H. Seward. Alexander Gardner pholOgraphcd him is at workiii'11le most oY31 QTfrie:ndships; i; lun cs the dgti~tioo imo
in hiS c;e1I, whert he was waiting to be: hanged. The photograph mourning while at the same time engagin It.
is handsome, 35 is the boy: that is thesrudillm. BUI the pllnclllm is:
h~ is going Iv di/', I read at the same rime: rhis 111,11 k and rhis has •
hun; [ observe with horror an :Interior future of which (!eath is
the ~lake. 13)' giving me 10 the absolute paSI of the pose: (aorist), lhe Friendship: between the two titles, that of lhe book and that of the final
pholograph fells Ine dealh in the fUlure. What poiflls inC, pricks me, farewell in italics, bet",~en the tides and the cxcrgue ('"quotations" of
6, CI"'PTU ONt;
Bataille that spc=ak twice of"fric:ndshipi. the: exchange is sun metonymic. inturuption. Though neither more essential nor more int~rior. this in-
though the singularity does nOf lose any of its force; quite the comntry." terruption announces itself in another registcr, 3S .:mother thought of the
same one ...
I know there arc the books.... The books themseh'es refer to an
existence. This existence, b«ause it is no longer a presence, begins
10 be deployed in history, and in the WOrsl of hisloril:$, literary
•
history.... One wants to publish "everything;' one W:.lnLS 10 say Having returned from the somewhat insular experience wherein I had
"everything," as if one were anxious about only one: thing: lhat secluded myself with the two books, I look today only at the photographs
everything be. said; as if the "everything is saKi" would finally allow in other books (especially in RoIilnJ &rlh~ by RolanJ Bartha) and in
us to nop a lkad \·oicc. ... N long as the: one who is dose to UJ newspapers; I cannot tear myself away from the photographs and the
exists and. with him, the thought in which he: affirnu himself, his handwriting. I do not know wh3l I am still looking for, but I'm looking
thought opens iue.lf 10 us, but preserved in this ycry rdation. and for it in the direction of his body, in what he shows and says of it, in what
wh:u preserves it is nOI only the mobility oflifc (this would be vcry he hides of it perhaps--like something he could not su in his writing.
little), bUI the unpredictability introduced into this thought by the I am looking in these photographs for "details"; I am looking, without
5tl1lnge-n~ ofthc end.... I also know that, in his books, Georges any ilillSion, I believe, without any indulgence. for something that regards
&uille $Ct'ms to spe..k ofhimsclf with a frttdom without restl1lint me, or has me in view, without seeing me, as I believe he says at the end
that should free us from all di.scrction-but that docs not givc us the of Camna LuciJa. I try to imagine the gestures around what we believe
right to put ourselves in his pbce, nor docs it gi\'c us the powc.r to to be the essential writing. How, for example, did he choose all these
speak in his absencc. And is it ccrtain that he speaks ofhimsclf'? ... photographs of children and old people? How and when did he choose
Wc must give up trying to know those to whom wc arc linked these lines for the back cover where Marpa speaks of his son's death?'~
by romething csscntial; by this I mean \\Ie must greet thcm in the And whtlt about these white lines on the black background of the inside
relation with the unknown in which they grttt w as well, in our cover of RolonJ Barth~J by RoianJ Barthe5?'~
estrange-malt. (F; 289-91)
•
• Today somebody brought me a nOle (less than a Ictter,::I single sentence)
that had been destined for me but never given to me twenty-four years ago,
Where does the desire to date these last lines (the t4th dnd 15th of almost to the day. On the eve of a journey, the note was to accomp:my the
&ptember, 1980) come from?'J The date-and this is always something gift ofa very singular book,a little book thatCven today I find unreadable.
of a signature--accentuates the contingency or insignificance of the in-
terruption, Like an accident and like death, it Sttms to be imposed
r+ 1...oke 10 many (JIher Ihinp lhal do nee JUrvlve transbllOn. the pauagc on tnc back
from the outside, "on that day" (time and space arc: here given togethu,
of u (/wmtJwr (li."r has bcm onullcd in c._ l..ariJ4. We thld fC$Wft hen: thil
the conditions of a publication), but it no doubt also indicates another ~purf: around ...ha, we bdlCtt to be the _ntial ...riti"g~: -Marpa "'al "try ihalr.en.
..·hen hu own.lOfl dtcd, ,,00 one: of hIS diKipk. uld to him. 'You ha...., "Iwa,., ~
that eV«)Ithing il an iIIuno". b not lhe death of your son an iI1u'ion u wellt And
n. BblKhcx 1q;inJ FnrtUl.rllip (iJ:) with IWQ ~pigr.lphJ from Bal<lille: -My CQmplicilou, Marra rrtportdcd. ·Ccrtainly. oollhe dc.uh of my IlOO is:I lupo:r.dlusion:--A PnclKc
friendshiJY. this is whal my rrmpo:rament brings to other mell~: - ... friend, unlillmt of lhe Tibcl<ln Way.- Thl,.,.
stale of profound fricnd~ip where a man abandoned, abandQr,cd by all of his friends, 15· In Ih.c English edition thdc handwriucn lind of Banha appear in b1xlr. on" ""hile
"nto\lntC1"S in life the ooc who will_CQfllpany him bcrond life, hmudf wi~1 life. I»ckground ,,00 have been Inrorpontcd lOCO the- opuunl "nd c"'ing p:oges of the rut
apllllk of free fricoo~ip. dctxhcd from all tia.-_T..ns. rawr than printed on lhe fronl and back irulde C(Wen,. How:ud I~rulala thac tWQ
,~ Dunda IS tdC1"tmg hen: to hit own te:XL Fim puhlishcd in Po/tJ,qw in September U'tICri~ -It mUll: all bc COIUIdcrcd as; If lpokm b, a cha~cr in a novel-; -And
'98'. It onl wrium about a year before that. "pproximndy sill months "ftcr Banhai aftct.....rdf I-What to ""me _ 1 Cao you sull write anythUl,ll--Onc writes with
death ,n March., I9S0--T..tU. ooc', dalles. and I "m nor: through doirina--_7,.-.
" Clt"'P'T1l1. ONI
"
I know, or I think I know, why this gesture was interrupted. Actually, it
was detained (and the little book ended up !xing placed inside another) as
•
jfto preserve thC': memory orthe interruption iudf. This interruption, for Would the imp0s5ible u(teranC(' "I am dead" really never have l.'lken
reasons 3.1 once ~rious and playful, in fact concerns something I would Ix: place? He is right when he says that, "literally. according 10 the letta,"
tempted locll the whole ofmy life. This note (which I thus r«cived today it is "foreclosed." Yet one understands it. one heani its so-called literal
on the eve of the same journey, I mean to the same places) was found by meaning, even ifonly todeclnre it legitimately impossible as a performative
chance, long a(ler the death oftne one who destined it for me. Everything utterance. What, was he thinking at the moment he referred to "t'he leuer"?
is vcry dose 10 me, the: form of thc writing. of the signature, these vcry Probably, to begin with, thai in the idea of death, all other predicates
words. Another intcrru tion makes all this 35 distant and unreadable remaining questionable. one mighl :malytieally deduce the inability to
as thai little, insignificant violimm. But in the interruption. the olher, utter, to speak, to say I in toe present: a punctual I, punctuating in the
returning, addresses himsdfto me, in me, thc othc=:r truly returning, truly instant 3 reference to Ihc self as to 3 unique referent. this autoaffective
ghosdy.t6The paper retains the foldsofthcsc: Iwemy.four )'tilrs; I rcad the reference: Ih:1I de6nes the very heart of t~ living. To return from this
blue writing (and more and more I am sc::nsitive 10 the color of writing, point to metonymy, 10 the metonymic force ofIhe punctum, without which
or at any rate, I am now 1110re aware thai I am sc::nsitive to it) of someone there would undoubtably be no punctum as such... ' For at the heart of
who, speaking about death, had told me in a car one day, and I recall thc:sc=: the sadness fdt for the friend who dies, there is perhaps this point: th:n
words often: .. 1t will happen to me soon." And it was true. after having been able to speak ofdeath as plural, after having said so often
"1 alll dead" met:lphoricall)' or metonymically. he was never able 10 say
• "1 am dead" literally or :Iccording to the leucr. Were he to have done so,
he would have again given in to metonymy. But metonymy is no mistake
That was ycsterday, Today, another Strange coincidence: a friend sc::nt me or faJ.st'hood: it does not speak untruths. And literally, according to the
from the United S13tes a photocopy of a text by Bartha that I had never letter, there is perhaps no ptlndum. Which makes all uuerances possible
read before ("Analyse tcxtuelle d'un conte d'Edgar poe,~ 1973)," I will but d«s nOt reduce suffering in the least; indeed, it is even a saurct'. the
read it later. But while "lea6ng" through it, 1 pickro out this: unpunctual. illimitable source of suffering, Were I to write "«nanl i la
Ie"" and were r to try to translate it into another language ... (All these
Anomer scandal of enunci:nion is the rc\'crsal of the metaphor questions are also questions of translation and transference.)
in the leuer. II is indeed common to uner the sentence MI am
dead!" ... IButl the transposition ofthe metaphor into the kner,
/'ucmly /rJr lhiI m~/(J/,hor, is irnp<mible: the uneranee MI am de.,d"
•
is, lilerall)'. according to the leuer, forcdoscd.... Ttrs a qu~tion. if I: the pronoun IpronvrnJ or the 6rsl name IPrinoml. the assumed name
you like. ofa scand31 ofl:mgu3gc , . , ofa per(ormaun: unc:rance. {priu'~noml of the one to whom the ullHance MI am deruf' can never
ro bt' sure. 001 one thatllCimer Austin nor Bc:n\'c:nislc had fores«n happen, Iht' literal utterance, thai is, and, assuming this is possible. the
in thcir :lnalySC5.... me extraordinary sentence "'I am dead" is by nonmetonymietlluran«? And this, even when the: enunciation of it would
no me:llns the incredible sutement, but much more ra.dicall)', the be possible?
1m ibk uJlntlR«,
•
,6. ~"':., a gcwoo ·.etumingM QC" Mcom1ng !)xl: and as a noIlII, Mghost" or
Q\CItU Wouldn', the utterance MI am dead;' which he says is impossible, fall into
"phantom.· Twu )a;liom furthc:•. OcrrKb u~ the p1lfaK rn~_,,'.1.1 k,f'tY, whkh the province of what he calls elsewhere-and c.'llls on :.t5--lllopid And
am be Iransl~l~ as -rrturnlnS I() th( kiter: "Illenll, rflunung.- -ghol.IIO IIw: Iata.-
or CVal M"tcl~lI, a gboK.--T'IlIU-
doesn't this utopia impost' it$C.lfin thc place. ifonc can still say this. where
17. Roland Boonho. MAnaJysc laludlcd·unconled·Edp. Poe.- in L.._ '..... ....,IOIogoq,... rneton)'my is already at work on thc 1 in its rdation to itsc:lf, the 1 when il
(P~I~ Scull, '96s). 3~ refers to nothing dse: but the one who isprl:Untly spe3kingr There would
66 CHA ..T .... ONI!
be something like a sentence of the I, and the time of this elliptical sentence "Conflict," "What Is a Utopia For?" "'"Forgeries ('I Write Classic')," "The
would leave room for metonymic substitution. To give ourselves time, we Circll:ofFragmc:nts," "Thel~ragmentas Illusion," "From the Fragment to
would havc to return here to that which implicitly links, in Camera Lucida, the Journal," "Pause: Anamneses" ("The biographeme ... is nothing but
Jf Time as a punctum to the mctonymic forcc of the punctum .•. a factitious anamnesis: the one 1 lend to the author I love"), "Limpness
of Important Words" ("History" and "Natute," for example), I'Passing
• Bodies," "Foreseeablc Discourse" (example: Tmoflhe Dead: a litaneutical
text, in which no word can be changed), "Relation to Psychoanalysis," "I
"What must 1 do?" In Camera Lucida Barthes seems to approve of the Likel1 Don't Like" (one line before Ihe end, I try to understand how he
one who places-of she who placed-"civil value" above "moral value" could have written "I don't like . .. fidelity"; 1 know that he also said he
(CL, 67). In Roland Bartltes by Roland &rthes he says that morality must be liked it and that he was able to make a gift of this word; I suppose-it's a
understood as "the precise opposite ofethics (it is the thinking of the body matter of tone, mode, inflection, and a certain way of saying quickly but
in a state of language)" (RB. '45). incisively "I like, I don't like"-that in lhis case he did not like a certain
pathos with which fidelity is so easily charged, and especially the word, the
• discourse on fidelity. which so quickly becomes tired, drab, Iistlcss, stale,
forbidding, unfaithful), "Choosing Clothes," "Later .. :'
Between the possibility and the impossibility ofthe '" am dead" there is the
syntax of time and something like a cau:gory of imminence (that which
points from the future and has reached the paim of taking place). The
•
immincnceofdeath presents itself; it is always at the point-in presenting Co~rapuntal theo!t.or a procession of stigmat.1: a wSl!llclruuJoubt comes
itse1f--of presenting itselfno longer, so that death then stands between the in (the) place of the point signed by singularity, in (the) place of its very
metonymic eloquence ofthe. "1 am dead" and the instant when death ushers ,raa
i~stant~(fli~~), atits point, its tip. But in {ihe[ oJi:~ISevent, place is
in absolute silence, allowing nothing more to be said (one point and thars given over, for the same wound, to substitution which re ts itself£here,
it, period 1M poif/tc'tst 10(1/1). This punctual, puncwating singularity (and I rctaining of the irreplaceable only a pasr desire.
understand "punctuating" here as an adjective but alsottS a type ofverb, the
enduring syntax of a sentence) irrndiates the corpus from its place ofinuui~ •
nenee and allows one to breathe, in Cam(f'(l Lucida, this "air" thatbeeomes
more and more dense, more and more haunted and peopled with ghosts. I 1 nill cannot remember when I re,'ld or heard his name fot the nut time,
use his words to speak ofthis: "emanation," "ecstasis," "madness:' "magic:' and then how he became one for me. But anamnesis, even if it breaks
off always too soon, promises itself each time to begin again: it remains:
• to come.
PAUL. DE MAN
De Man receiv«J a bachelor's degree with distinction in chemical science colJected essays by de M:m, Harold Bloom, Geoffrey Haronan, J. Hillis
in 1940. In the same year, he met Ann Baraghian, a Romanian who had Miller, and Jaequc.s Derrida.
settled in Belgium, with whom he had a son, Hendrik. They married in Dc Man's first book, BI;ndn~H and Imighl, written during the 1960s.
'944 and had twO more sons, Robert, in 1945, and Marc, in 1946. was published in 1971. Although de Man's early essays had appeared in the
From December 1940 to ovember 194:1de Man contributed literary '9505 in French, it was not until some of the.sc essays were included as part
articles to the newspapers Lt so;r and H~l VJaam$dt~ Land. Though he of the second edition of BI;ndn~J.I and Insig'" that they began to be widely
resigned his position atu so;, to protest the German editorial control ofthe known. In t972 de M..a.n edited the French edition of Rilke's Ckuvres for
paper, these articles were later to become the ttnter of much controversy Editions du Seuil in France.AIlq:or;~sofRMd;ng, a "rhetoricar reading of
because of their anri~Semiticcontent. De Man then worked for the Agence Rousseau, Nietzsche. Rilkc, and Proust, was published in 1979' De Man
•
Dechenne, a hook distributor and publisher and, in 1945. cofounded a remained at Yale for the restofhisacadcmiccareer, where he became Ster~
publishing finn of his own, Hermes, specializing in art books. The venture ling Professor and Chair ofComjXIrativc Literature and French in 1979.
was short lived, however, when de Man's attempt to establish the firm in Though a prominent teacher and significanl voice in American liter~
the United States pro\·ed unsuccessful. In '945 he also published a Flemish arycriticism throughout the 1970S and early I~,dc Man published a rel-
translation of Melville's Moby·Dick. atively small body ofwork during his lifetime. A number ofirnpor13ntcol-
After World War II de Man visited Paris, where he met such literary lections ofessays have been published posthumously, most ofwhich engage
figures as Gwrgcs Bataille, Maurice Blanch~ and Henri M.ichaux. He in a critique of"aesthetic; idwlogy." Rh~toricofR()mDnlieism, wriuen over a
went to the United States in 1948and took a job asa clerk at the Doubleday twenty-seven-year period (1956-83), contains the bulk ofde Man's writings
bookstore in Grand Central Sution in New York, before becoming an on romanticism and includes essays on Keats, Yeats, Wordsworth, Shelley,
instructor of French at .Bard College ('94HI). It was at aa.rd that de and Holderlin. Th~ Resi$lana to TJrrory, which remained unfinished at the
Man met his second wife, P:lIricia Woods. They were married in 1950 time of de Man's death, examines the work of thwrists such as Michael
and had two children, Patricia :lnd Michael. In 195' de Man surted RifTaterre, Hans Robert Jauss, Walter Benjamin, and Mikhail Bakhtin.
teaching languages at the Berlitz School in Boston. He was admitted to Cdt;cal Writings, comprising twemy·fiveessays and reviews (most ofwhich
Harvard's Comparative Literature program in 195:1 and received his M.A. appeared before (970), represents de Man's "critical" phase. Romaflticism
in t954, becoming a member in that same year of Harvard's Society of and C01Jt~mporury Crit;cUm includes de Man's previously unpublished
Fellows. De Man earned money during these years translating articles for Gauss Seminar lectures given at Princeton in 1¢7. Aenh~tU: Itkology,
Henry Kissinger's journal Conjlufflu. From 1955 to 1900 de Man taught de Man's major project at thc time of his death, indudeslecturcs gi\·en
courses in general education and comparative literature at Harvard in a between 1977and 1953 on Pascal Kant, Hegel, and Sc.hill(r,among others_
non-tenure-track position. While working on his doctorate he spent six De Man died of canar in ew Haven on December 21,1983.
months in Ireland srudying Ye3ts and 3 )·(ar in Paris. where he presented
a paper at Jean Wahl's College philosophique. He received his doctorate: in
1960 with a di~nation entitled "Mallarmi.. Yeats, and the POSt· Romantic
Prwicament."
From l¢o to 1967 d( Man taught at Cornell, and from '963 to 1970
he was an ordinarius in comparative literature at the: University of Zurich,
where he counted among his colleagues Emil Staiger and Gwrges Poulet.
Between 1968 and 1970 de Man held the POSt of professor of humanities
at Johns Hopkins, before moving to Yale in 1970. His presence at Yale.
along with that of a number of other outstanding scholars, brought fame
and prestige to what was considered the center of deconstrucrive thwf)'
in the United States in the late 19705 and early 1!JSos. This reput::nion was
enhanced by the 1979 publication of Deconstruction ond Cn·,;cism, which
IN MEMORIAM: OF THE SOUL disagreemenl. It WaS like the golden rule ofan alliance, no doubt Ihatof a
rruning and unlimitcd friendship, but also the seal of a secret affirmation,
Forgive me for spe<lking in my own tongue. It's the only one I e\'er slXJke a kind ofshared faith in something thlll, still today, I wouldn't know how
with P<lul de M<ln. It's <llso the one in which he often tau8ht. wrote, <lnd tocircumscribc=, to limit,to name (and that isas it should lx:). As you know,
thoughl.. What is more, I haven't the heart today to transl.3te these few Paul was irony iudf and, among all the vivid thoughts he leaves with us
words, adding to them the suffering and distance, for you and for me, of;1 and lC3ves alive in us, there i<; as well an enigmatic reflection on irony and
foreign accent. We 3re speaking today less in order to say something than even, in the words of Schlegel which he had occasion to cite, an "irony of
IP assure ourselves, with voice and with music. that we <Ire together in the irony." At the heart of my attachment 10 him, the.re: has also alwa)'s heen
same thought. We know with what difficulty one finds right and decem a ceruin beyond-of-irony which cast on his own a softening, generous
words at such a moment when no recourse should be had to common light, reRecting a smiling compassion on (:\,(:rything he illuminated wlth
usage since all conventions will seem either intolerable or vain. his tireless vigilance. His lucidity was sometimes o\'erpo"'ering, making
If we have, as one: .s.1YS in French. "Ia mort dans rame," dC3th in the no concession ro weakness, but if nev(:r gave in to that negati\'e as..sur'.lIlce
soul, it is because from now on we are destined to speak of Paul de M:ln, with which the ironic conSCIousness is sometlmes tOO easily $3tis~.
instead of speaking to and tvith him, destined to speak of the teacher and At some later time, then. I will try to find better wOf"ds for whal
of the friend who he remains for so many of us, whereas the most vivid his friendship brought to all of th<K<: who had the good fonune to be his
desire and the one which. within us. has been most cruelly b.1ucred, the friend, his coll(:ague, his student; but also for his work .and ~peciall)' for
mQSt forbidden desire from DOW on would be to speak, still, to Paul, to hear the futun~ of his work, undoubtedly onc of the most mflueotial of our
him and to rC$pond to him. Not just within ourselves (we will continue, time. His worl.:, in other words, his tcaching and hiS books. those already
I will continue, to do that endlessly) but to speak to him and to hear him, published and rhose:: soon to 3ppc:ar--bccausc, to the ..cry 1351 and with
himsdf, speaking to u.). That's the impossible, and we can no longer even an admirable str(:ngth, ~nthusiasm. and g3iety, he \\!ork~d on ever new
t:lke the me:asure of this wound. lectures and writing projects, enlarging and enriching still further the
Spe:lking is impossible, but so (00 would be silence or absence or perspecti\'c.s he had alre:ldy opc:ned up for us. As we know alr(:ady. bUI
a refu.s.11 to share: one's sadness. Let me simply ask you to forgive me if as we shall also come to realiu: more and more, he transformed the field
today finds me with the strength for only a few \'ery simple words. At of literary theory, revitalizing all the channels that irrigate it both inside
a later time, I will try to find !>tner words, and more serene ones, for and outside the univusity, in the United States and in Europe. Iksides a
the frie:ndship that tie:s me to Paul de Man (it was an<1 remains unique), new sryleofinterpret:ltion, of reading. of teaching. he brought to bear the
what I. like so many others, owe: to his generosity, to his lucidity, to the: ncressity of the polylogue and of:l plurilin~uistic refinement that was his
ever so gentle forc~ of his thought: since thai morning in 1966 wh~n I genius-nOt only that of national languages (Flemish, French. German.
met him at a breakfast table in Baltimore, during a colloquium, where English) but also of those idioms which are literature: and philosophy,
we spoke, among Olher things, of Rousseau aud the &;oi mr I'origine du renewing 3S he did so Ihe rt":lding of Pascal as wen as Hilke, of Descartes
langut'!, a text which was then seldom read in the: uni\'ersity but which and Holderlin, of Hegel and Keats, ROUSse.3U and Shelley, Nietzsche and
we had both ~n working 011, e3ch in his own way. without knowing Kant, Locke and Didcrot, Stcndhal :mel Kierkegaard. Coleridge, Kleist,
il. From thcn on, nothing- has ever come berween us, not even :l hint of Wordsworth and Baudcl:lirc, I>roust, Malbrmc and Blanchot. Austin and
Heidegger3 Benjamin, Bakhtin, and so lIlany others, conlemporary or nolo
Nevercontent merely to prescnt new readings, he led one to think the very
Th;) ho"mj;C wa~ delivered January IS. 1j)S... al Yale Unil'eu;ty during 1\ «,cmQfly in mcmQTY possibility of reading-and :'llsosometimes the IJ:lradoxofits imJXlssibility.
lIf IJaul de M.III. ReIJtin~, wilh eh.;r,ngc~. (rom ~ln Memoriam: Of wo:. Soul,~ lransbtcd by His commitment remains henceforth that of hi~ friends and his students
KC"m Newmark. in ),Imt<><rr:Ifor I'glll k MII/1, by jxqur:. Demtb (New Yurk; Columbia who owe it to him and to themselves U) pursue what was begun by him
Unil'cn;ty f'ras. 19l191. 1'1'..,.,.. 0 '986 Columbia Uml'cr:oity PTe$). Rep'mtet! by llC:rnlJ~~'Qn and with him.
of the: lJUhli~hcr. Flnt I'ubli,he<l in Y"I.. "'(('10('1. Srudjo, ron. 69 (Nr:w I b,'cn: Yale Unil'enity
I'rns, '9lI5>- F,r,1 French publlt":lllOll. ~In mcomoriam: ()(o f:lmc,~ In Mfm4iro: I'QSlr 1',,111 t/.. Beyond the manifest evidence of Ihe publisheJ lexts-his own a..
),I"". by facII""" lA-rood:> (Pam: Gahl.:e. ,0)S8I. IJ-IC). well as those. thaI make reference 10 his-I, like many Dlhen. can altest
ett""Tll TWQ ''''UL or; .. M".
to what is today the radiance of his thought and hi.s words: in the United word 'rumeur"'-which, in fact, is more terrible, more insi.nuating and
"
States, first of all, where so many universities are linked and enlivened by menacing in French than in any other language (ltlm~urllu mcurs: you
the large community of his disciples, the large family ofhis former students are dying).
or colleagues who have remained his friends; but also in Europe at all the I recall the second memory because it says something about musie-
universities where I had, as I did here at Yale, the good fonune and the and only music today seems to me bearable, consonant. able to give some
honor to work with him, often at his im'itation. I think first of Zurich, measure of what unites us in the same thought. I had known for a long
where we came together so many times, with Patricia, with Hillis; and time, even though he spoke of it ,ery rarely, that music occupied an
naturally I think of Paris, where he lived, published, and shared editorial important place in Paul's life and thought. On that panicular night-it
or academic responsibilities (for examplt; for Johns Hopkins or Cornell- was 1979 and once again the occasion was a colloquium-we were driving
and again these: were for us the occasion of so many encounters). I also through the strttt5 ofChicago after a jazz concen, My older son, who had
know the impression his passage left on the universities of Constance, accompanied me, was talking with Paul about music, more precisely about
Berlin, and Stockholm. I will say nothing of Yale because you know this musical instruments. This they were doing as the experts they both were,
better than anyone and because today my memory is tOO given over to as technicians who know how to call things by their name. It was then
mourning for all thoU I have shared with him here during the last ten I realized that Paul had never told me he was an experienced musician
years, from the mOSt simple day·to-dayness to the most intense moments and that music had also been a practice with him. The word that let me
in the work that allied us with each other and with others, the friends. know this was the word iimt!lsoul] whcn, hearing Pierre, my son, and Paul
students, and colleagues who grieve for him so close to me here. speak with familiarity of the violin's or the bass's soul,llearned that the
I wanted only to b¢Jr witfless as would befit the sort of admiring "soul" is the name one gives in French to the small and fragile piece of
observer I have also been at his side in the American and European wood-always very exposed, very vulnerable-fhat is placed within the
academic world. This is neither the time nor the place to give in to discreet body of these instruments to support the bridge and assure the resonant
revelations or too personal memories. I will refrain from speaking ofsuch communication of the two sounding boards. I didn't know why at that
memorics, thereforc-I ha\'c too many of them, as do many of you, and moment I was sostTangely moved and unsettled in some dim recess by the
they are so overwhelming that We prefer to be alone with them. But allow conversation I was listening to: no doubt it was due to the word "soul,"
me to infringe this law of privacy long cnough t.o e,'oke rwo memorics, which always speaks to us at the same time oflife and of death and makes
just two among so many ochers. us dream ofimmorulity, like the argument of the lyre in the PJuuJo.
The last leuer I received from Paul: I still don't know how to read And I will always regret. among so many other things, that I never
the sercnity or the chttrfulness which it displayed. I never knew to what again spoke of any of this with Paul. How was I to know that one day I
extent he adopted this tone, in a gesture of noble and sovereign discretion, would speak ofthal momenf, that mwic and that soul, without him, before
so as to console and spare his friends in their anxiety or their despair, or, you who must forgi"e me for doing it just nnw so poorly,so painfully, when
on the contrary, to what extent he had succeeded in transfiguring what already everything is painful, so painful?
is still for us the worst, No doubt it was both. Among other things, he
wrote what I am going to permit myself to read here because, rightly
or wrongly, I received it as a message, confided to me, for his friends in
distress. You'lI hear a voice and a tone that are familiar to us: ~ All of this,
as I was telling you Ion the phone I. seems prodigiously interesting to me
and I'm enjoying myself a lot. I knew it all along but it is being borne out:
death gains a great deal, as they say, when one gets to know it close up-
that '/Xu projond misuau calomnii /a mort (shallow strcam calumniated as
dealhl...• And after having cited this last line from Mallarm~'s "Tombeau
for Verlaine," he added: ~ Anyhow, I prefer that to the brutality of the
CHAPTER 3
MICHEL FOUCAULT
1946. He there met Pierre Bourdieu, Paul Vc:yne. and Maurice Pinguet. Roger L1porte~ edited a special issue of Critique devoted to BlanchOt; his
Among his professors was Louis Althusser. with whom he would develop own essay, "The Thought ofthe Outside," constitutes a major contribution
a dose friendship. For his thesis for the dipl6me d'budes supbieures, (Q Blanchot scholarship. From 1¢6 (Q 1968 Foucault resided in Sidi
Foucault wrote on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit under the dire<:fion Bou Said, a small village in Tunisia, where he wrote Th~ Archaeology
ofH)'ppolite. ofKnowledge.
Foucault obtained the licence de phi/osophit i.n 1948 and the licmude Foucault returned loFrance in December 1¢8 to join the faculty of
PJychologie in 1949 at the Sorbonne, where Jean Wahl. Jean Beaufret. Jean the experimental university at Vincennes, be<:oming a colleague and friend
Hyppolite. and Maurice Merleau~Ponty were leading figures. In July '951 of 1-f~lene Cixous. As a professor of philosophy entrusted with forming a
Foucault passed theugr/gution, having failed the oral part of the exam the new department, Foucault recruited Michel Serres, Rene Scherer, Franl;ois
previous year. Ch1iteltt, Etienne Salibar, Alain Badiou, Jacques Rallciere, and Gilles
In 195' Foucault became rlp!titellr of psychology at the Ecole Dcleuze to join him at Vincennes. In 1969 Foucault published his influ~
Normale Superieure, where his course was attended by GErard Generte. ential essay "What Is an Author?" The following year he W:l.S appointed,
Paul Veyne. and Jacques Derrida. among others. He was exempted from at t.he age of forty-rhree, to the chait of tile history of systems of thought
military service during that same year for reasons of health. In June 195~ :l.t the College de France. His inaugurallec:ture on December 2, 1970. was
he passed his dipl6me de psychopathologie at the Institute of Psychology of later published :l.S L'o,.dre du dlJcours. In 1972 Foucault published "My
Paris and began teaching psychology at the University of Lille, as well as Heart, This Paper, This Fire," a critical and polemical response to Jacques
at dlC Ecole Normale. He was an avid reader of litcnlture during these Dcrricla's 1963 essay "Cagito and the History of Madness," which offered
years, fXIrticularly writers such as Mawice Blanchot, Georges BataiUe, a reading and critique of Foucault's 1¢1 text on the history of madness.
and Rene Char. His imerest in German psychiatry led him to visit Ludwig The tWO thinkers rem3incd distant from one another until t?82) when
Binswanger in Switzerland in 1953 and to transl:lte Binswanger's Dream Foucault circulated a letter on behalf of Derrida to protest his wrongful
and &isUflU, for which he also wrote a lengthy preface. III 1954 he arrest in Prague.
attended Jacques Lacan's seminars at Sainte Anne and published Mu/odie The '97OS were a period of intense polit.ical activity for FoucaulL
menta/~ et persoflflulitl. From 1955 to 1958 he tlughl at the University of He bet;ame involved in the movement for prison reform, helped create
Uppsala in Sweden, before moving to the Centre Fnll1l;ais in Warsaw. In GIP (Groupe d'informarion sur les prisons), and published Discipline
1959. the yearofhis father's death, he took upa post at the Institut Fran~is and Punish (1975), a major work 011 the history of the Prench penal
in Hamburg. system. During these years, Foucault lectured frequently in Brazil and
Foucault returned to France in 1960 to teach philosophy and psy- North America, at places such as Berkeley, Irvine, Claremont, S~nford,
chology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. There he met Gilles Dartmouth, Princeton, and Columbia. With the publication of each new
Deleuze and Daniel Defen, who was (Q become his companion from trans!3tion, imerest in Foucault's work grew in the United States. The
1¢3 to the time of his death. In J96J Folie et dirauon: Histoire d~ /0 first volume of his HistoryojSexuality, published in 1976 (1978 in English),
folie d {,dge classique and his complemenwry thesis, a translation'of and was to have an enormous influence on many academic disciplines. In 1981
introduction to Kant'sAnthrop%KY, were published. tn May of the same Foucault particip.ued in a major conference devoted to his work at the
year he defended his thesIs, directed by Georges Canguilhem, and was Davidson Center in Los Angeles.
awarded a DoetOrtll es lcures. During the early I¢oS FOllcault wrote In the early 19Bos Foucault began to suffer symptoms of the AIDS
numerous lexts on literary themes and figures, among them Raymond virus-flltigue, weight loss, and pulmonary distress. Despite his condition,
ROllssel. He published Binh afthe Clinic (1963) and joined the editorial he continued his course 3t Ihe College de Prance and, in 1984, corrected
conunitlee of the journal Critique. He also developed a dose friendship Ihe proofs for further volumes in The History ofSexuQlity. In June 1984 he
with the members of the Tel Quel group. Foucault participated in the was hospitalized by his brother, Denys, at Saint Michel Hospital, before
famous Royaumont colloquium on Nietzsche organized by Dele.uze in being transferred to the Salpetriere. He died on June 25 and was buried at
July 19t4. Two years later he published The Order of Things and, with Vendeuvre-du~Poitou.
"To Do JUSTICE TO FREUD'" here, to something like its postface, one of its postfaces, since the drama I
THE HISTORY OF MADNESS IN THE JUSt alluded to a rose OUt of a certain postface, even outd a sort ofpostscript
ACE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS added by Foucauh to a postface in 1972.
While. a.ccepting wholeheartedly this generous invita.tion, I nonethe-
When Elis3heth Roudinesco .and Rene M:tjor did me the honor and kind~ less declined the accompanying suggestion that I return to the discussion
ness ofinviting me to:t commemoration th:tt would also be a reRection, to that began some twenty.-eight years ago. I declined for numerOuS"re:lSQns..
one of these genuine uibutes where thought is conditioned by fidelity and the first being the one I just mentioned: one does. not carryon a stormy
fidelity honed by thought. I did not hesitate for one momem. discussion after the other has dep.'lned. Second, because this whole thing
Above all, because 1love memory. This is nothing original, ofcoune, is. more than overdetermined (so many difficult and intersecting texts-
and yet. how else c"10 one lover Indeed, thirty years ago the publication Descartes's, Foucault's-so many objections and responses, from me but
of this greal book of Foucault was an event whose repercussions were so also from all those, in France and elsewhere, who later came to act as
intense and llluitiple that J will n(lt even try to identify them, much less arbiters), it has become too distant from me, and perhaps because of the
measure them, deep inside me. Next, because I love friendship, and the drama JUSt alluded to I no longer wished to return to it. In the end, the
trusting affection that FOUC3Uh showed me thirty years ago, which was debate is archived and those who lUight be interested can an:llyze it as
to last for many years, was all the more precious in that, being shared, much as. they walH and decide for themselves. By rereading;lll the texts of
it corresponded to my profc$Sed 3dmiration for him, Then, after 1972, this discussion, right up to the last word, and especlnlly the last word, one
what Qlme LO obscure this friendship, without. however, .affecting my will better be nble to understand, I imagine, why I prefer not to give it a
admir.ation, was not in fact alien LO this 1x>ok, and to a cermin delxlte that new impetus today. There is no privileged witlless for such a situation-
ensued--or at least to its dislant, delayed, nnd indirect effects. There was which, moreover, only ever has the chance of forming, and this from the
in all of this a sort ofdrnmatic chain of evems, a compulsive and repeated very origin, with the possible disappearance of the witne$.';. This is perhaps
precipitation th:lt I do not wish to describe here because I do not wish one of dle meanings of any history of madness, one of the problems for
to be alone, to be the only one to spe.ak of this after the death of Michel any project or dL'K:ourse concerning;} history of madness, or even a history
Foucault-eJ(ccpt to sny that Ihis shadow that made us invisible to one of sexuality: Is there rilly witnessing t'O madness? Who can \...itnessr Does
another, that made us not associate with one another for nearly ten years witnessing menn seeing? Is it to provide a reason Irl."ndrt' raISon I? Does it
(until January I. 1982, when I returned from n Czech prison), is still parlof have all object? Is there any object? Is there a possible third that mighl
a story that I love like life itself. It is part ofa story or history that is related. provide a reason without objectifying, or even identifying, that is to say,
and that by tl;te same token rekltes me, to the book we are commemorating without examining !amllsonerl?
Though I have decided not to return to wh:u was deb:lted close to
thirty years ago, it would nevertheless be absurd. obsessional to lhe point of
This 11::11:1 was first delive«:tl al the &tillIe-Anne Hospital in Pari' ()fl November :lJ, 1991,111 the
pathological, to S:ly nothing of impossible, 10 give in 10 a sort of fetishistic
Nind, Colloquium oft1~ Imcrnational Socicly for lhc History ofP.•ychmlry:lnd P~yeho.al\llly,ili,
which wali deVoted III FOllCault', Ilu!Q,rt at la[oIu: in order 10 mark Ihe thinielh anniversary denial and to think that I cnn protect myself from any contnct with the
nr irs flub1ic;.lion. The ~1<'Jquillm W;lS opened by ~rge~ Clllguilhtm, to wllw ml:lOory place or meaning of this discussion. Although I intend to speak today of
Derrklalatl:r clcdkated lhl: vo':nioo oflhls texl in RbJJtanas b Iii MKJu"'l,Ilys~. Reprinted. with something else altogether, starting from a very recent rerending of The
eh:lnga, fn'm "Tv Do JUSIlt-e 10 FreuJ.~ tl":lnslaled by Pascale-Anne Brault and Mkh:ad Nus, His/my of Madness in /hi! Classical Age, I am not surprised, and you will
Cntia~llllIJuiry:1O,no. 2 (wimer 1994): ll7...fJ6, Rcpubl~hell in IWUfUmYS of P~hOilMtysU,
by Jit<XjuC$ Derrida. tr:msJall'll by Peggy K.tn>ur. Pascalo':-Anne Br:n.... 'Y'd Michael Naas
probably not be either, to sec the silhouette of certain questions reemerge:
ISranford: Stanford Univerliiry Pr~. 19'}ll1. 70-']6. 113-r8. Fi151 French I'Ubikalio.n. ~'Etre not their content, of course, [Q which I will in no way relurn, but Iheir
juslO:: avec F'reud': L'hlsl<lire de la (<llie ~ I\ige do': lit P1'p:h:lnaly""t in P"run Ia [ohe: Essstis abstract type. the schema or specter ofan analogous problematic. If I speak
.mr lIIit"j,rl po,4(.'fl.ul~, procco:;lings oflhe Ninth Colloquium ,If the InterMtioollll Sodery for not of Descartes bur of Freud, for example, if I thus avoid a figure who
the History d Psychiatry and PsychO:lnaly~s(Parili' Gahl&,. 1992), l'fr-95. Ro':publishoo in
seems central to this book and who, because he is decisive as regards its
Rfs<S1iIMU Ik Ur /'$YI'ltalUllpe, by J:J«tUCli D<:rrida (pari,: Galil~e, 19961. S!r-''f6. To follow the
:unbiva!<:m rol.. pl.1yed by Freud in Ihc wnrk of f'l,lUCIuh, the intcrellC:d reader wHi wish w center or centering of perspective, emerges right from the early pages.
look al lhe full ICXt in Raii/anaJ. on, right from the first border or approoch, if l thus avoid this Cartesian
8. CIlAPTIlI, TIlIU MlellllL 'OUCAULT 83
reference in order to move toward another (psychoanalysis. Freudian or Therefore. ifF0UC2UII's book, despite all theadtnowkdged im-
some other) that is evoked only on the edges of the: book and is named possibilities and diffieulties lacknowledged by him, of coursel. W3S
only right near the end, or ends, on the other border, this will perhaps capable of being wrinen. we h:;l\"e the right to ask what, in the l:15t
be once again in order to JXI~ a question that will r~mble the one that roon. supports this langwge: without recourse: or support rwithout
impo5(:d itselfupon me thirty years ago, namely, that of the vcry possibility recourse" and "without support" are expressions of Foucault that I
of.3. history of madness.' The question will be, in the end, about the same, had jun ciled): who enunciates the: possibility of nonrecourse? Who
though it will be posed from another border, and it still imposes itselfupon wrOte: and who is to IIncle:rst.1nd, in whallanguage: and frorn what
me as the lirst tribute owed such a book. If this book was possible. if it historical situ:lrion orJogos, who wrOte and who is to understand
had from the beginning and rClains today .3. cenain monumental \'alue, this history of madness? For it is nOI by chance: that such a pro)c:ct
the presence and undeniable necessity of a mOflummt. that is, of what could take shape today. Without forgetting, quit~ to th~ rontrory.
imposes iudfby recalling and cautioning. it muS{ tell us, teach us, or ask the: au£bcity of Foucault's act in the: HlJwry ofModnns. we must
us something about iu own possibility. as.sume thn:l certain liberation of madllCS5 has gotten under...."1If.
About its own possibility today: yes, we are saying today, a certain th<tt psychiatry has opened itself up. hOWC\ler minimally land. in the
t<xby. Whatever else one may think of this book, whatever questions or end. I would be tempted simply to replace psychiatry with psydlO-
rCKrvations it might inspire in those who come at it from some other point oms/ysu in order to Iransble the today of yesterday into the today of
of view, its pathbreaking force: seems incontestable. Justas incontest3bh: as myqucstion oftooayl. 3nd that the concept of Inadness as unreason,
the law according to which all pathbreaking opens the way only at a cermin if it ever had a unity. has bc:c:.n dislocated. And that a project such
price, only, that is, by bolting shut other passages, by Iig.uuring, stitching as Foucault's an find its historical origin and passageway in the
up, or compressing, indc:ro repressing, at least provisionally, other veins. opening produced. by this dislocation.
And so today, like yesterday, I mean in March of 1963, this question of If Foucault, more than anyone else, is attentive and sen5icive
the today is important to me:. the question I tried to formulate yesterday. 10 these: ki.ndJ of questions. it nnerthdc:ss apprars that ht docs nQl
I ask you to pardon me this once, then, since: I will not make :I habit acknowledge meir qlUlity ofbc:ing pre-requisite me:thodologKa.l or
of it, for citing a few lines that then defined, in its general form, a task philosophical considerations.-
that sec:ms to me still m:cessary, on the side of Freud this time rather
than on the side of Descartes. By saying "on the side of Freud" rather If this type of question made any sense or had any legitimacy, if the
than "on the side of Descanes," let us not give in tOO quickly to the poine W(lS then to question that which, today, i.n this time that is ours, this
nai'vete that would prccipitate us into believing that we are doser to a time in which Foucault's History ofMadnUJ was written, made possible
today with Freud than with Descartes, though this is the opinion of most the event of such a discourse, it wouJd have betn more appropriate for me
historians. to elaborate this problematic on the side of modernity, a porte JUbjecti, in
Here, then, is the question of yesterday, of the today of yesterday, as some sense, on the side where the book was written. thus on the side,
I would translate it today, on the side of Freud, transponing it in this way for example, of what must have happened to the modern psychialry
into the U:Klay of today: mentioned in the passage I just read. To modern psychiatry or, indeed,
10 psychoanalysis, or rather LO psychoanalyses or psychoanalysts, since the
p3ssage to the plural will be precisely what is at stake in this discussion.
I. See Michel Foucauh, Folie a dltwison: HliltNre k 14fo1" i r.VdilssWt"" (Par;$; Pfofl.
1961), 'H'?" A much.abridged '-eu;on wu publhhc:d in 196-1 and rTaosbl."J ;nlO
It would have thus been more imperative to insist on modern psychiatry
Englisb by Richard How:,,"l under lhe rille MaJI'InS 11M Cwi/iurion; II Histoty of or psychoanalysis than to direct the same question toward Descartes. To
/tU/I..ity ill 1M A,t t1/ R«Ul>tf (New Yurk; Pamhwn. (965). Sinu lkrrid.. refcN 10 !he. study the place and role of psychoanalysis in the Foucaultian projcct of
unabndged text of 1961 and worlu ,.,ilh the origmallide throughout, ~ have refern:d a history of madness. as I am now going to try to do, might thus consist
10 lhi$ "'vrk a, TItI flt.RO?ofMadnus (or in lOme: ~ T~ HisIo?ofM.J.as ... IN
C/asnal I\f!r). For a more (t)mpl~ hlMOrJ of this lext and of Fow:::aull'. ~te W\lh
lkrnda .,..~ '''' "" our QI)tt In lkrrMb', Rnuur>l«f of P~JF(SwlfO'd: StlllIfonf :t. Jxquo:- Derrocb, ~jlO:ond the Hnwr,olMxl-.~In Wn"",...J IJ,~. miN.
UniYffliIJ Pr-. 1991J). 123 IL I..-T....... Abn ~ (O'llCl8O' UlUwnny ofChicaJO PrftJ, 1978). j
8, CHAPTIiIl T'UIlII MICtI£t. I'OUCAUt.T 8,
in correcting an oversight or in confronting morc directly a problematic later (1965;-66), of the role of the cogito and-precisely--of the deccitful
that I had left in a preliminary stage. as a general, programmatic frame, God in -La science et 101 veritt," Lacan returned time :tnd again to a
in the imroduction to my lecture of 1963- Thai lecture made only anI:: certain unsurpassability of Descartes.4In 1945. !..:tcan associated Desc:t.rtes
allusion to psychoanalysis. It is true. however. that it inscribed it from me with Freud in his "Propos sur 101 causaliu~ ps)'chique" and concluded by
'"cry opening. In a protocol thai laid out anaio reading positions, I spoke saying that "neither Socrares nor Descartes nor Marx nor Freud can be:
of the way in which phiiosophiClllanguage is footed in nonphiJosophical 'surpassed,' insofar as they conducted their research with this passion for
language, and I recalled a rule of hermeneutical method that still seems to uD\'eiling whose objcct is the truth,"s
me valid for t:M historian of philosophy as well 35 for the psychoan:lll)'slo The title I have proposed for the few reflections I will risk today,
namd)', the necessity of first ascertaining a surface: or manifest meaning "The History of Madness in the Age ofPsychoonalysis," clearly indicates
and,thus,ofspeaking the langU3geofthe patient 10 whom one is listening: a chang~---a change in time, in tense. mood, and voice. It is no longer a
the necessity of gaining a good understanding, in a quasi·scholastic way, question of th~ age dest:Tibcd by a History of Madness, It is no longer :I
philologically and grammatically, by taking into account the dominant question of an epoch or period, such as the c1:tssical age, that would,
and stable conventions, of what Descartes meant on the already so difficult inasmuch as it is its very object, stand before the history of madness as
surface of hi 5 text, such as it is interpretable according to classical nonns of Foucault writes it, It is a question today of the age to which the book
reading; the ncrcssity of gaining this understanding before submitting the itself belongs, the age out of which it takes place, tile age that provides
first reading to a symptomatic and historical interpretation regul:ued by its situation: it is 3 question of me age that is describing radler than the
olher axioms or protocols, before and in order to destabilize, wherever this age that is dest:Tilud, In my title, "the history of madness" ought to be
is possible and if it is neceS5:lry, the authority of canonical interpretations. in quotation marks since the tid~ designatC!l the age of the book, ~The
Whatever one ends up doing with it, one must begin by listening to History (historia ruum g~Itarum) of Madness"'-3S a book-in the age
the canon. It is in this context that I recalled Ferenczi's remark cited of psychoonalysis and not the: history (r~s geItiJ~) of madness, of madness
by Freud in The Im"ptrtiJtion of Dreams (MEver)' language has its own itse:.lf, in the age of psychoanalysis, even though, as we will !itt, Foueault
dream language") and Lagache's observations concerning polyglotism regularly attempts to objectify psychoonalysis and to reduce it to that of
in analysis... J which he speaks rather than [0 that out of which he speaks, What will
In its gen(':ral and historical form, my question concerned the Iitr interest me will thus be the tUne and historical conditions in which the
that today gives rise to a history of madness and thereby makes it possible. book is rooted, those that it takes as its jX>int ofdeparture, and not 50 much
Such a question should have led me, it is true, toward the situation the time or historica.l conditions that it recounts and tries in a certain
of psychiatry and psychoonalysis rather than toward a questioning of a sense to objectify. Were one to trust too readily in the opposition lxtw«.n
reading of DescarteS. This logic would have seemed more natural, and subject and objcct, as well 35 in the category of objectification (something
the conS«Juence more immediate. But if, in so mictly delimiting the field, that I here believe to be neither possible nor just, and hardly faithful to
I substituted Descartes for Freud, it was perhaps not only lx:ca~ of the Foucault's own intention), one would say for the 5.1ke of convenience that
significant and strategic place th::lt Foucault confers upon th~rtesian it is a question of considering the history of madness a parte Stlbj~cti, that
moment in the interpretation of th(': "Great Confinement'" and of the is, from the side where it is written or inscribed and not from the side of
"Classical Age," that is 10 53y, in the layout of the very object of the book; what it describes.
it was already, at least implicitly, becaU5C of the role that the reference to a Now, from the side where this history is wrinen, there is, of course,
certain Descartes played in the: thought of ..hat time, in the eMly si"ties, as a certain state of psychiatry-as well as psychoanalysis, Would Fou.
close as possible: to psychoanalysis, in th~ very element, in truth, ofa cermin cauh's project have been possible without psycho.1nalysis, with which it
psychoanalysis and Lacanian theory, This theory d~veloped around th~
question ofthe subjcct and the subjecr ofscience. Whether it was a question 4. Sa: Jacque. unn, ·Propos- lur b aw:;olut plychiquc· ~nd MLa ..acne.: n I~ "Uill.Mon
of anticipated cert:tinty and logical time (1945, in &riu) or, som~ y~ars r:.mu (P:aris; Seuil, 1966), ~ 11<)-44. The blt(r ....' a. (Doubled by BrlKe Fink urnkr
rhc (ilk -Stkna and Truth,- N~Wlkturof'4.rFrtwJiII" FidJ J. nQl. 1-:1 {19S9l: 4~J.9.
5· Uc:an. ·Pr<lpI)I Mlr b aw;l!ilt' PJyduquc; 19J.
86 CIlAPTU THallI! ",,'CIlIIL fOUCAU1.T 81
is contemporary and of which it speaks little and in such an equivocal of itself and to mark one of its folds in a scene that I will not call ~If
or ambivalent manner in the: hook? D<xs the projcct oW(' psychoanalysis referential or specular and wh~ structural complication I will not even
anything? What? Would the debt, ifit had been cOnlf3cted, be essential? try to describe (I have tried to do this e1~where). This is not only becau~
Or would it, on the contrary, define the very thing from which the project ofwhat withdraws this history from the regime of representation (bec:.a.use
had to detach itself, in a critical fashion, in order to take shape? In a word. of what already inscribes the possibility of this history in and after the
what is the situation of psychoanalysis at the moment of, and with respect age of Freud and Heideggu-to usc: these names as mere indications
to, Foucault·shook ? And how does this book situate its proj«t with respect for the sake of convenience). It is also for a reason that interests us here
not only to psychoanalysis in general but to a particular psychoanalysis, at more directly: what Foucault announce:s and denounces about the relation
a particular phase of its history, in one or another of its figun:s? I ... J between pleasure and power, in wbathecalls the "double impetus: pleasure
The question that I would have liked to formulate would thus and power,~ would find, already in Freud, to say nothing of those who
aim neither to protect psychoanalysis against some new attack nor to followed, discussed, transformed, and displaced him, the ver)' resources
cast the slightest doubt upon the importance. necessity, and legitimacy for the objection leveled against the "good genius," the so very bad "good
of Foucault's elluemely interesting project concerning this great history of genius," of the father of psychoarulysis.1 will situate this with just a word
sexuality. My question would only Sttk-:md this would be, in sum, a sort in order to conclude.
of modest contribution-to complic:ue somewhat an a.xiomatic and, on the Foucault clearly cautioned us: this history of sexuality was nOt to be
basis of this, perhaps, certain discursive or conceptual procedures, partic. a historian's hisrory. A "'genealogy of dt:siring man" was to be neither a
ularly regarding the way in which this axiomatic is inscribed in its age, in history of representations nor a history of behaviors or sexual pf3ctices.
the historical field that sc=rvesas a point ofdeparture, and in its reference to This would lead one to think that sc=xuality cannot become an object of
psychoanalysis. In a word, without compromising in the least the ne«ssity history without sc=riously affecting the historian '5 practice and the concept
of reinscribing aJrnost "all" psychoanalysis (assuming one could ~riously of history. Morco\'er, Foucault puts quotation marks around the word
say such a thing, which I do not bdieve one can: psychoanalysis iu~/f. oil "sexuality": "the quotation marks have a cenain importance, he adds.7 We It
psychoanalysis,lh~ whole Imlh about 011 ps)'choonalysis) into a history that arethusalsodc:aJing her~ with the history ofa word, with its u5esstarting in
precedes and exceeds it, it would be a question ofhttoming interested in the: nineteenth century and the reformulation of the vocabulary in rdation
certain gestures, in certain works, in certain moments of certain works of to a large numbc::r of other phenomena. from biological m«hanisms to
psychoanaJysis, Freudian and post-Freudian (for one cannot. especially traditional and new norms, to the institutions that support these, be they
in France, seriously treat this subject by limiting oneself to a strictly religious, juridical, pedagogical, or medical (for example, psychoanalytic).
Freudian di.scourst: and apparatus), in ttrtain traits of a consequently This history of the uses of a word is neither nominalist nor essen·
nonglobalizabte psychoanalysis, one that is divided and multiple (like the tialisl. It concerns prOttdurc:.s and. more precisely, 'l.Onesof"problematiza-
powers that Foucault ceasdessly reminds us are esscntially dispersed). It tion." It is a "hinory ofnuth" as a history of problmlari=otionJ, and even as
would th~ be a question of admitting that these nettssarily fragmentary an "archeology of problematizations," "through which being offers itself
or disjointed movements say and do, provide resources for saying and as something that can and must be: thought.... The point is to analyze not
doing, what Th~ History of Sexuality (Th~ Will to KnotIJll'dg~) wishes to simply behaviors, ideas, or ideologies but. above all, the problmloti%/ltiofU in
say, what it m~anJ ItJ~lIt di~I, and what it wisht:s to do (to know and to which a thoughtofbc::ing intersects "practices" and "practices ofthe ~If," a
make known) with regard to psychoanalysis. Tn other words, if one still "'genealogy of practices of the self" through which thest: problematizations
wanted to speilk in terms of age--somelhing that I would only ever do art: formed. With its rcAexive vigilance and care in thinking itself in its
in the form of citation-at this point. here on this line, concerning some
trilit that is on the side: out of which the history of sexuality is written
6. M~l Foucauh, TM History oj&-.......lity. YOI. 1,.'1" l"troJuo;o", InN. Rol:1e1't Hurley
rather than on the sidt: of what it describes or objectifies. one would have (New York: Villtage Book5, 1980),4.5.
to 5.1Y that Foucault's project in its possibility be.longs too much to "'the ;. Michel Foucault, T~ Hmory of $nrwI1ity, vol. 2. T~ u~ of Plhu,,", tnN. Robert
age of psychoanalysis" for it, when claiming ro them:niu psychoanalysis, HUlk,. (New York: Pantheon Boolr.s. '985). Y
to do anything other than let psychoonalysis continue to speak obliquely 8. Foucauh. T~ Uwofpt.w,,". /1-13.
88 CIll\I'Tl:ll TillitE WICU"L I'OU(:MiLT 89
rigorous specificity, such an analysis dlUS calls for the problemutizotiofl of pleasure principle (the: hypothesis of such a beyond never re:ally seeming
its OtV" prob'~mathatiol1. And this must itself also question itself, wilh to be of interest 10 FOUC3Uh) 3S3insl which the wholecoonomy or ple:3sure
the S<1mc :Irchcological and genealogical cart, the same care Ihal it itself nee:ds to be re:thought, complicated, punued in its most unre:cognizable
methodically prcscribt.-s. ruses and de:lours. By means of one: of these: filiations-another one
When con framed with a historical problcmatization of such scope unwinding the spool of the fortlt/a Ihal continues to imerest us-this
and thematic richness, one should nOI be S3tisfied eimer with a mere survey lext also problematizes, in its greatest r:;adic:clity, the agency of power and
or with asking in just a few minutes an ovcrarching qu~tion so 35 to insure mastery. In a discreet and difficult passage, an original drive: for powe:r or
some: sort of synoptic mastery. What we C4ln and must try 10 do in such :I dri\'e for mastery (&mikhtigung$lri~b) is mencione:d. It is very difficult to
situation is to pay tribute to:1 work this great and this uncertain by means know if this drive: for power is still dependent upon the pleasure: principle,
of:1 question that it ilSdf raises, by means of a qucscion that it carries indeed. upon sc:xuality as such, upon the austere monare:hy of sex that
within itsdf. that it keeps in rcscn'c in its unlimited potential, one of the Foucault de:nounces on the last page: of his book.
qut"Slions thaI Co'ln thus be=: deciphered within it, a question thaI keeps it in How would Foucault have situ.1ted this drive for mastery in his
suspense. holding iu breath (timt ... m holl'inc}-and, thus, keeps it alive. discourse on powe:r or on irreducibly plural powers? How would he
For me, one such qu~t1on would bt the one I tried to formulate h:cve r(:3d this drive, had he rod it, in this extremely enigmatic texi
a few )'('ars ago during a conferentt honoring Foucault at New York of Freud? How would he hne: interpre:led the recurring re:ferences 10
Um\ersity.• It was developed by mons of a problematiz:uion of the the demonic from someone who then makes himse:lf, according 10 his
concept of power and of the theme of what Foucault calls the Jpira/ in the own te:rms, the "devil's ad\'ocat.e~ and who bc:come:s inlCrc:sted in the
duality powerlple:csure. uaving aside the huge question of the concept of hypothesis of a late or derived :;appearance of sex and sexual pl(:3sure:?
power :cnd of what gives il its alleged unity under the cssc:ntial dispersion In the whole problematization whose history he describes, how would
rightly recalled by Foucault himself, I will pull out only a thread: il would Foucault have inscribe:d Lhis p.assage from Beyond th~ PICHur~ Princip/~.
IC:td to that which. in a certain Freud and at the center of a ceruin French and this concept and th~ questions (wilh :a.JI the debates to which
hc:rimge of Freud. would nO! only never let itself be objectified by the this book of Freud eithe:r dirc:etl)' or indir«t1y gave rise, in a sort of
Foucaultian problemati7..ation bOl would actually contribute 10 it in the o\'e:rdetermining capitalization, p.articularly in the France of our age,
most determin:lle and efficient way, thereby deserving to l:x: inscribed on beginning with e:\erything in Lacan th3t takes its point ofdep.arlure in the
the thematit.ing r:nher Ihan on the Ihematizcd border of Lhis hislory of repetition compulsion IWil'dN'holtmgrzuIQngJ)? Would he have inscribed
scxualily. I wonder what Foucault would have said. in this perspective and this problematic matrix within the whole: whose history he describes? Or
were he to have t.1ken this into account, nol of"Freud" or of p5)·choonalysis would he have put it on the othe:r side, on the side of what allows one, on
"itself' in gt',um/-which does not exist any more than power does as one the contrary, todclimit the whole, indeed,to problematizc it? And thus on
big ceolf31 :md homogeneous corpus--but, for tlamplc, since this is only a side Ihat no longe:r belongs to the whole:, nor, I would bctcmptc:d to think,
one example. about an undertaking like Beyond tht' P~4rt' Principlt', to any whole, such thai the: very idea of tl gathering of problemati'Z3tion or
i.bout something in its lineage or bttwcen ils filial connections-along procedure IdiJpo.>itlll, tOSo,y nothing any longer of age,(/Jutffllt'. paradigm,
with everything lhat has bee:n inherited, repeated, or discusscd from il or epoch, would make: for SO many problematic names, just as problematic
since then, In following one of these threads or filial connections, one of as the very idea of problemalization?
the mosl discreet, in following the abyssal, umlssignable, and unm:lSlerablc This is one of the qucstions that I would have: liked to ask him. I am
mlHcgy of this leXt, a malegy that is finally without strategy, one begins trying, since this is. unforlunalCly, lhe only recourse left us in the solirude
to sec th3. this text not only opens up the horizon of a beyond of the of questioning, to imagine the principle of the reply. It would perhaps
be something like this: whal onc must stOp belicving in is principality or
principleness, in the problematic oflhe principle, in the principled unity of
or
• The (ollowing analy~i. ;ntenccu • much Ionller lrr.ttmeJll the ,ubJ«1 in ~n
unl'uhl,)hetll~lllC:rentitled ~fkyond the Power I'rincipk.~ WhloCh I I'rcoented ;l.t ~
conrcrence h......... i'lg Fouuu]t orgamll:<:<! al Ne.. ¥Ctrk Univenity by 11wm;u Bi.hop
pleasure and power. or of some drive that is thought (0 be more originary
than the other. The lheme of the: .>piml would be that of a drive duality
In AI",,1 '?!l6- (power/pleasure) that is 4vithout p,.i"ciplt:,
90 CIIAI'TU Tlltlll
Is not what Freud was looking for, under the names "death drive"
and "repetition compulsion," that wbich, coming ~before" the principle (of CHAPTER 4
pleasure or reality), would remain forever heterogeneous to the principle
of principle?
It is Ih~ spirit ofthis spirol that keeps one in suspense, holding one's
breath-and, thus, k«ps one alive. MAX LOREAU
The question would thus once again be given a new impetus: is not
the duality in question, this spiraled duality. precisely what Freud tried to jUNF. 7. '928-jANU.1RY 7. '990
oppose to all monisms by speaking of a dual drive and of a death drive, of
a death drive thal was no doubt not alien [0 the drive for mastery? And,
thus, to what is most alive in life, to its very living on lsurvivance)?
I am still trying to imagine Foucault's response. I can't quite do it. I
would have so much liked for him to take it on himself
But in this place where no one now can answer for him, in the
absolute silence where we remain nonetheless turned toward him. I would
venture to wager that, in a sentence that I will not construct for him, he
would ha\·eassociated and yet also dissociated, he would have placed back
to back. mastery and death, that is, the same-death and the master, death
as the master.
Belgian poet, writer, aesthete. and philosopher Max
Loreau was born in Brussels in 1928 and spent mostofhis
childhood and adolescence in Wemmel, on the outskirts
of Brussels. He attended sc.hoob in Laeken and Koekel-
berg before studyingc1assical philology and philO5Ophy at
the Pr« University in Brussels. Roger Goosens, writer,
poet, professor of Greek, and reader of Nietzsche. was
Loreau's most inAuential leacher during this period.
Although most of Loreau's own work focuses on con~
temporary poets, painters and writers, he always felt an
affinity for classical authors such as Homer, Lucretius,
Virgil, and Dante. whom he studied at the university.
In thecarly 1950$ Loreau married and helped raisea
family of three children. From 1951 to 1955 he performed
his military service, taught brieRy in a high school, and
continued his philosophical studies at the Free University
in Brussels. He there earned his doctorate in philosophy
in 196' with a thesis entitled "L'humanisme rhttorique
de Lorenzo V;llla et la formation de la pensee bourgeoise
en lulie." His doctoral research led him to Florence, a
city that would later inspire his book of poems Fwr~nu
POTtl~UtlX nun (1986),
91 CIl""TU. FOt:.
Aft~r his uni\'~rsity studies. Loreau became a memlx-r of Lc fonds of Loreau's work on an, this book is concerned with Ih<': ~in<':xhaustible
"
National de la Recherche Scientifique (thc Belgian equival~nt of France's <':nigma of p.'linting." Th<,: fX'<':tic work "Dans I'ielat du moment-Lc
Centre National d~ la Recherche Scicntifiquc) and latcr a profcssor of matin d'Orphc~," written in collaborarion with Gerard Garcin, who had
modern philosophy and aesthetics at the Free University (196-+-69), He on sevcral occllsions put Loreau's poems lO music, was performed and
was married a second time, in 1(;67. to Francine Loreau. Acti\'e in sluclcm recorded by !.he Nouvel Orchc=stre Philharmoniqll~ in September 1988 for
ga!.hcrings at the Frce Uni"crsity in Brussels in 1968, LorC3U abandoned Radio Fr3nce.
his 3cadc:mic car~r thc following ye.'lr todevOle himselfcntirely to writing. In 1!f88 Loreau fell ill with C:lIlcc::r and undcrwent surg~ry 3nd
Throughout the 1950S and l¢os Loreau pursued his interests in chemotherapy. He s~nt eight months in the hospital r«O\'c::ring from
art, photography, and poetry writing. In 1963 he mel the paintcr Jean the loss of s~ech and memory Ihat had resulted from the surgery and
Dubuffet, with whom he would develop a e10se friendship and to whom mcdiclltions. Thest' experiences arc describc=d in L'lpr~lIw, l...Qreau's I3sl
he would devore numerous studies, including Dubll.ff~t et Ie lJO)'ogf> au work, publiShed shortl), befor~ his de3th. In 1989 the monumental Lo
cmtr~ de 10 pacf>ption (1966), the philosophical commcnt3ry "Art, Culture genis~JupM1Jom~ne, a studyofPlalo, Kant,and Heidegger. W3S publish<':d.
el Subversion," published in May 1C}68 and latcr collected in La /WintuTf>Q In this [ext Lareau gavc a philosophical shape to his abiding interest in
I'oeuvret'll'brigmedurorps (I~). Lareau alSQ edited !.he first t\\'~nty-<ight the birth and genesis of phenomcna and the notion of creation in art,
volumes ofDubuffet's Cota/ogue des trotJaux. philosophy, and poetry,
Lore.1u's interest in Henri Michaux's "mescaline drawings" \cd him Loreau losr his struggle with cancer on lanu:lry 7. 1<)90. In May of
to make the acquaintance of the poet in 19<>-+. His first work of poetry, th3tycar theColll:ge Intcrn:ltional de Philosophic:: d<,:vot~d a special session
CN"CeOIIX 'so~lIent, illustrated by DubufTet, appearc::d in 1967. in 1973 he to his work.
published Cri: &Iot et p),tUeS-bis Iwre-ckf-a book in which philosophy
and poetic writing arc intimately woven togeth~r. Loreau also bc=gan a
long correspondence during this pc=riod with Christi:lIl Dotr~ment, th~
founder of the avant~garde group Cobra, to whom Loreau d~voted a text
entitled i...eI /ogogrnmme/ dt' ChriIr;ulJ Dormn~m (1975). In the late 19705
Loreau experiment~d with short stories (NQuwl/es dt'/ errn et dn pas, 19'76)
and published Chunu ik pnpbud/t' t-entu' (1978). Hc became a fr«\uent
conlributor to Ihe journal Po&$;~ and later joined its editorial board; his
book on the poet Mic:hel D<:guy W3S a result of this associatiol
LA pe;nturt: Q /'<XtWU, a collcction of Lareau's essays on art, po-
etry, p3inting, and language, was published in 1980. The text, centred
around "the secret of the body," staged a confrontation bctwun poetic
languag..- and picforial form. Throughout the 19S0s Loreau continued
to publish crilical studies 011 contemporary art, on such artists as Pierre
AI«hinsky, Karel Appel, \Villem de Kooning, DuburTet, Dotr~ment, and
R..-nc Magritle,
In 1987 Lore3u published En quBud'ufl {lI/t"~CQmmenC('1nenr,a major
collection of ~says on philosophy (includin~ two lengthy studies of Hegc::l
dating from 1¢9--70), art (Picasso). poetry and lit~rature (5.'lint·John
Pe~, Louis·RenC des Forcts). L'uttlu;r Jurommencement. which appeared
the following year. was published in conjunction with an exhibition of
paintings organized by Loreau at the Celllre Culturd de 13 Communautc
Franc;aisc in Brussels on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Likf: all
M"lI: l.OlllAU 95
LETTER TO FRANCINE LOREAU endlessly hollowing out the depths of our memories, beneath their great
beaches and hc:.neath each grain ofsand, beneath the phenomenal or public
Ris Orangis, July 15, '991 scope of our destiny and behind the fleeting, inapparent moments, those
Dear Francine. without archive and without words (a meeting in a c.:rfe, a letter eagerly
II torn open, a burst of laughter revealing the teeth. a tone of tht" voice, an
It is also in order to call you to witness that I turn [0 you today. In the intonation on the phone, a style of handwriting in a letter, a parting in a
end I wasn't able to write what I had wanted to dedicate to the memory train station, and cach time we say that we do not know, that we do not
of Max. something th,u would be worthy of him. that would show the know ifand when and where we will m«t again). This being at a loss also
extent of my admiration for the singular force of his thought, that would has to do with a duty: to let the friend speak,to turn sp«ch over to bim, his
do justice to the intractable intensity of his bodily struggle with language, speech, and especially not to take it from him, not to take it in his place-no
in Ianguag~, 301ready in language's own struggle with itself, something that offense set"ms worse at the dt"ath of 3 friend (and I already fa:1 that I have
would ruemble what he has left living in m~ in us. that would also be fallen prey to itHo allow him to s~3k, to occupy his silenct" or to t<1.kt"
worthy of the friendship he offered me, a friendship of which I havc no up speech onCSC':lfonly in order, if this is possible, to give it back to him.
doubt shown myself. for a long time now. to be unworthy. I have often felt this loss, for I have already lost too many friends
But already, you see (and I prefer addressing you first, Prancine, for (and the discourk of mourning is mort" threatened than others, though it
you have been the closest witness to what I no doubt will not be able to should be less, by the generality of the genre, and silence would here be
say here), this language linking ~fora=" to guilt would probably not have the only rigorous response to such <1. fateful necessity). I have already lost
pleased MOIx. I do not like it either, but what is the weofnot acknowledging too many friends and I lack the strength to speak publicly and to recall
guilt when it remains infinite despite eV(:fy claim to the contrary? Already each time another end of the world, the same end, another. and each time
with these first words so tentati\'e1y ventured. I fa:1 I am being unjust, it is nothing less th30n an origin of the world, each time the sole world, the
with an injustice without limit. unique world, which, in its end. appears to us as it was at the origin-sole
Why do just the right "'ords escape me here? and unique--and shows us what it owes to the origin, that is to say, what it
Having Ified time and again to write, having failed o\'er and over, I will have been,beyond every future anterior. And you kno"' that the origin
had to admit to myself that something else was preventing me from writing of this appearing without any present thing, without pr~ce even, this
beyond all tbe "mitigating circumst:l.nccs": fatigue, false emer~t\Cies, presence without phenomenon, this phenomenon with noothN beginning
frantic running around,doing too many things atonee, living at an absurd than the rending cry that separatcs language from itself at its birth, on the
pace-I remember Max once accusing meofall this,as we were parting on verge of articulation, in the very first spacing of the proper hody, was, as
a train platform in Brussels,during what turned out to be our last ma:ting. you know, beyond every Thing, the theme, !3sk, and unrelenting desire
He seemed to reproach me for !hue things as though they were a kind of of Max: to try to the very end to turn, to make fold, or rather to let fold
distraction, diversion, or means of escape, far from that intense interiority of itself, to turn inside out, to operate through this operation of writing
to which one might retreat or fold in upon, to which he knew how to bend and voice, through the inilialing of the work, this turn that converts both
or give in. if only better to think space and rcopen the outside, each time body and thought to the rcengendering of this origin of the world, and
as if for the first time. He let me hear his objection with what seemed to to recapture the becoming apl'Xlrent of the appearing rather than what
me a fricndly and deserved severity, though also with a smile that ~rhaps has appeared. E\'ery instant of Max's writing bears witness to this, on the
feigned incomprehension. Beyond every "circumstance:' then, some other very edge, on the fold of this originary rending, on the fold that marks
thing puts me at a loss for just the right words. What other thing? in advance or else keeps the trace of this rending, the fold tbat genesis
This being at a 10$5 says something, of course, about mourning and makes with death.'
about its truth, the impossible mourning that nonetheless remilins ilt work,
TlOlntlalcd by PaKalc·Annc' Braull and Mkhacl Naas forthi) volunIC. First French publlcalion. I, Ocrrm works rntoughc:oul thi, tUt with the Ihcl1'lCli and titles ollJl~n.1 of Lorc:auJ.
~L.curc i PranciM Loruu. in Mu I..«nt.. (BruiScls: I..cbccr-HOSIImann, 1991).515-105.
ft
works:; U. ~ J.. p4m0mbJ~ (Parii: Minuit. 1989).l\'oulJdkt Us irr'Q ~t do J'IlS
97
No. I sen~ that what is at stake in this loss, in the depths of my very separation never stopped making me think, or giving me to think, and
a.fTc:c:non for Max, IS some thing other, an c:\'cn moresingular thing. (I dare I would like to have received it today asa gift (rom Max. whether he knew
not say the Thing, for fear ofb.=ing seized, submerged, reengulfed right it or not. He knew. [0 be sure, that what separal~i\lid~and deav~
here by his Cry, for he gave us already long ago the pxm of the Thing. I by the s..me token alsog;ws. and that it is nOI necessary to know, indeed
qUOIe, almost at random; "'and the Cry having stopped, the Thing is there, thai it is necessary not to know. and thus recogni7..e. restitute, or idemify;
radiant, bare, di5Co\'ered , as if detached," as if the nling were the end he knew Ihat the w;/hOIlI reltlrn is necessary in order 10 give. Earlier, I
of the cry, at once the beginning :lud the end of language in "the equal. said that our sc:par:uion was "silent" lmtlt'ud. :lIld I qUOted from his Cry
indifferent Thing, detached at present,'"or "something that isstable-and the words ··gives unspnringly" (M3x'S language was itself unsparing, it
that is nothing, empty and limitless space--a mass that remains the same, gave unsparingly); "force-the view-that gives o(itsel( unsp.oringly and
invariable, that docs not evolve when the "iew changes, when it expends goes. A few years latcr, here is what his &aglll/ IMotlt'ttel, yes.guw to be
R
itselfin e,·0Iution5. when the head or body changes place; hence something heard. :accomplishing it and by the sam~ tokcngilling it in its Aight-~(or
that remains unchanged-the Thing-in relation [0 rorce-the view- nothing hutto s«;"lrit'nqut' pour voir). (It would be necess.uy to ponder ad
that gives ofiLSd( unsJX1ringly and goes" le, 1661. as if the Thing were the infinitum the exuaordinary syntax o(this ~for nothing but to see"; beyond
figure of both death and the immohili7..ed monument. the tWO (aces or two negation and position-nothing (rim I is the no (step) lJ1tu}--it speaks the
silences o( the S3me forgetting, the twO (nces o( memory that we do not just withdrawal of the Thing (res), just to see andg;w or bring to the light
wish to see, that our mourning endures but c:mnot possibly W:lllt.) of day, according to the \'oice, before the voice, :l(tcr it, in what rcl:ltcs
Some thing-which was everything but the Thing, eve.rything and rhythm to the cry and the cry to flight):
nothing so as to avoid the Thing-something happened that sep:tr<lted as (:af:aS the eye can'r see
us, hut in friendship, I believe. as if midway alon)t a path. Sep.uating us, the voice you sec, silences
thc:n, without separating us, without, 35 far as I am concerned, either my THIS '·OICR, SO OUT Ofl ITS SU;,$.ES
friendship or my admiring attention being put into question. But little by so OUTOfllTS SOiUS ,\"'D$O COST,\ISIED
littlc:, toward the end of the $(:\ienties, after a good ten years o( m~s, TIf.AT IT ClAMOU Faa SOTH1SG BUT TO SEE
Ieuers, exchanges. as I'm sure you remcmb.=r,;) silence settled in, and then
invisibility, a communication no doubt more and morC'. indirect-silc:nt c1ca....c(s)
in any case. I suffered (rom this :lOd surfer even morc today since I (ed and c1eavingclc3ns away
responsible for it, and once <Jgain beyond 311 those "circumstances" th3l- and IC~lIling c1ea... es and sees. a way
unfortunately, (or this experience is all tOO cOfmnon---often lead [0 such cleaving 10 howe clearing room
situations (distance, the infrequency of ffilXtings, and then, gaining ground and seeing La iliO d(::;2,ve it all
day by day, gaining on the day itself, iO\'isibility. the unbearable and yet indefinitely divides
endured certainty that in the days that arc le(t us we can count on one and gives and gh'cs
hand the promised or probable meetings with those whom we lo\"e and of and gi"cs unsparingly
whom our life is, 3S we say, made up). yields the endless dayJ
I don't know how Max would have felt and interpreted this separa-
tion (and to rem3in silent :lhou! it today would be an indecent lie and the: You no doubt know moreabout this separation between us than lela.
worst of betrayals). It remains a secret, (or me one oflhe absolute secrets of dear Francine, this sep.1r:ltion in life before that other one, but the secret
Ihis life, :lOd of what is best in this li(e. I say "best in this life" because this will remain. No one will ever know anything essential about it. No one
(pares; Galhm:;t.nl. 19j5). C/klnu '" pnprt..dk _w (P,tr"': QUhmard. 1978). ",nd I'.... A perdue I ~oi:t lue II, ~-.nu.1/l. YOIX I (I £P£aDt.iE U J"I oo!\'"TL"UI.J O"I.LLI.
U'C
.",I/nnt, lu jN.- k 1M _ _1K'r tJu glo«) (Monuno.mcJ: O,,"c B1.. nchc:. '#)' .'L" QClIPOCa vola .•• rend I Cl f"'rwbnl tpaacbe I Cl ·p-roc:iunl rend.. ct >'00(' I
cu,Jolli
10 "",me .. rcw.-T...... rcncblll 1 (ranch,.., per~ I t1 ~nl Jo toul rcndreJ indBintlTlC'nllranchc I Cl doone C1
Mu Loruu. C", &I.t n plwW.I (P;lm: G"lIlIimard. 19jJ). J7 (h«c:ancT ..hbrcvi,ucd ... C). doone I pro(hguc I d,~tcnK k jour unl fin.
MAX LOU1AU 99
will ever be able to testify to it, not even thOSt: of us who were closest, and of them alone and each alone and without witnesses) will think they can
especially nOt me. But I am nonetheless tempted to think that the silence bear witness, the "crossing right by one another" of two at once finite and
ofseparation (like the secret that bears it) perhaps came, or at least I wouJd "perpetual" arrivals Iwnua "~tuelles"l,perpetually finite, having come
like to hope-better than long-winded or philosophical explanations could from who knows where and from a distance that remains unascribable
have--to my by enigma, to say in silence and in s«ret, what happened to by anyone. It is this arrival that I nonetheless had the good fortune 10
us and what must be able to be felt in the published texts, I mean in the be given (I am here to allest to it, I am here only to the extent that I
things ofthe "endless day." can still allest to it), a good fonune that still leaves life in me. In this
Because this is in principle readable in the things of the dOl)'. readable proximity, I hesitate to say at the instant but at the point of crossing of
for th~ who might be interested in it; because I would like to believe such a "crossing right by one another," or, beuer, at the point when this
that it oom~ close, through certain irregular movementS, without an)' crossing is so imminent that one never knows whether it is taking place,
cartography, to what I will venture to call hue, for lack of a better whether it will have taken pl:lce or not, and no one will ever know this,
word, thought or language or, in their bodil)' struggle, the idiom or the the trace itself, which W.:IS already there, imprints ontO the twO vestiges the
cry; because these movements are undoubtably not decisions; because they form of an ellipsis, .. way of being silent from which two movements take
remain, though JUSt barely, displacements for which one cannot answer or up or pursue one another "to death." That is, pursue one another toward
be responsible; be<:ause it should not be measured against some continuous their most common destination, their most commonly shared experience,
narrative or interpretation; because this cannot be summed up or gathered without anyone being able to count the paths, whether there was one, one
into a whole, especially for whcxver remains alone, aftu Max's death; that was one, or twO or more, without anyone being able to account for
because I do not want to be: the only one to speak about what concerns this, and to know whether the distancing, once :Igain, between the traces
the twO of us, and, a frightful hYFKJlhe:sis. claim to ha\'e the last word on o£(oo) steps, in the trace and in the (no) step, doesn't amount to the same
what took pl..ce between us, I will say nothing, nothing other than the thing. Can one ligure the figure of these beings or steps or not(s)? I try to
separation or loss that I have not SlOPped talking about, though these are, sketch out this trajectory but I never get there; I get lost because I am still
of course, negative translations of what, in truth, I received or will have engaged in it for a time, but I would not be there, J will no longer be there,
been given since Max and I lim crossed by one another. without Max.
Forgive me then, Francine, for continuing on like this for JUSt a I am rereading him right now in wonder, better no doubt than ever
bit longer. but I would like to sketch out just one of the ligures that has before. I would like to quote everything, read or reread everything aloud.
imposed itself upon me for some time now (and it is precisely the figure Everyone can..-......cveryone should--do this. I was thinking, for example,
of what remains unfigurable): here, traces of no's and of steps [truces de that words beginning in int, the leiters i.n.t. suit him well, like a signature,
pasl, of "beings and of (no) steps [d'itres et de pat]," on a beach or in the pr«:isely because they an~ absent from his name. They do indeed seem
desert. attest that two were destined to C7'OM right by one another (se CTOuerJ. to sign the high tension that was his, and that could be felt when you
I use these words, evoking the crossing or crossroads, to speak neither of saw, heard, or read him. These letters came to me tOO when I wanted
the cross, the point at the center of which twO trajectories come in effect, to speak about him. (Already earlier, "point," [and what in French is
in fact, to traverse one another, or one the other, thus assuring us that not pronounced in these lettersJ, or "intense," "intractable," "interior,"
the meeting indeed took place, nor, more literally or to the leuer, of the and JUSt an instant ago, "tension"; I could have also said "intransigent,"
chi or the chiasm, the point of chiasm beyond which twO lines become "interior" or ";mimate"-for even his insistence on the outside, breaking
distant from or lose one another to infinity, nor even of the indubitable open, space, and the opening, was held taut in a sort of restraint or reserve,
point of tangency and contact assured by a crossing of paths, No, I :lln folded up or gathered logether [OWl! rd a poim de dedans Itoward no inside,
speaking rather of "crossing right by one another," in passing, from afar, toward a jXlint insideJ-and like the pas [the no, the step), like the rim
without <lnY assured contact, without an)' assurance, "crossing right by que [nothing butl, the point remains suspended between the indefiniteness
one another" in an improbable "m«:ting," that is to say, .....ithout proof, of neg:llion and the power of affirmation.) I can Stt on each page that
forever intangible, intangent, and intact, without wimess, the time of an these are indeecl his words, and !.his vocabulary gathers and sometimes
intermin:.ble gr«:ting to which e:.ch one alone and the others alone (all condenses. intensifies, so to speak, its density in the course ofa single page.
IOQ ellAPTllt POl/I MAX WllliAI1 101
Thus. in Cry, lhough I could multiply the examples endlessly: of the nttasity of :Ioolishing representation is abOlished for the
sake of the apparition that is nothing but itself lind leaves behind
(no) central point lhat it projccts althe extreme point of the gaze itself no:u.hes. To make the :lshes disappear (like burnt nylon or
.lround:a I:mdm.ark point it has planted in them, where it has Styrofoam}---that is what is most difficult. that is rhe task.
b«Ome implaOlcd and th:mk.s to which. while remaining at a
distllnce from them by the full length of its axis, thus keeping them August 9, r966 (he was t;Jlking about Artaud and about some
-definitive things" that are. he s.,id, "dangerous to live and to apply:'
at a distance. pushing them awa)'. holding back. their surge with
and toward which it is ··csJ'l.:cially dangerous to throl/lon~s~lf abruptly");
all the strength of this sunken point, this iOlense point. holding at
a distance thor violences around this poinl :and prorccting ilSClf These things must be taken on progrd5ive:ly. with caution: oth-
frctm them with all the pr~sure of the gaze taut like a piercing erwise. beware of ~ulClde. In the end II i~ a matter of returning to
trait or dart ... (through the point ofthe gaze. it is bolh within ,lIld animal life without renouncing thought. of reintroducing phos-
wilhout them) . " . the bod)', l06ing sight, losing its view, at the samc phorescent life illlo thouJ;ht: 11 is difficult not to slip at one poim or
timc loses its :axis. and thus its outSides (for it is sight-or the cry anolhcr. And all II takes i~ for one to indulge in th~ practices in
burst open into sight--f.hat se;par.ltes it from itS outsid~ and kccps soIitud~very dle'l.IncOlI dimension being suspc.ndcd----and \'ery
them from its insidn. (c. 110) quickly one no longer undefSDnds lhe Ol!"tcrs. The ellSk is to be 3blc
to keep company with both m;adllCSSand the: others. And Ill3dness
I am also rercading some of his leuers, so numerous and so beautiful.
is SO tempting for us who ha\c learnt only to keep company with
I hesitate to quote from them, out of discretion, though it would be hard
others.... So tempting and 50 frightening.
to determine whether it is mine or his; and yet I want to let him h3\'e the
last word here. How to let him ha\'\~: the last word and yet speak of him, of One year later, in a letter of August 23, 19f}7 (in the eour~ of a
him alone? In order not to draw from what everyone can read out there discussion about metaphysics and the necessity of writing ""hybrid" texts
of the public thing. I will ~Iect a few ~-Iltences written by his hand. ones in which Me:ach of two positions"-that of a writing that has broken with
that speak precisely of him, ,"cry earl)· on of his work, and much better metaphysics and that of, so to speak. the professional philosopher, the onc
than I could. Limiting myself to the old~t ones, the initial ona, those he no longer wanted to be_Mis in some: way contaminated by the other
that followed our first m«tings, I cite them not in order to withdraw or and secn from the other"):
to let him speak alone of himself, but because I like, in transcribing, to
It is a matter of finding the way that :i11lows one to escape these
underwrite :lnd listen to his voice, and to look at his writing, I mC3n the
positions from wilhin. I think I ha\e found it in the hyperbolic
way he forms his letters, his manner, his hand.
systematization of metaphysical oppositions. Wh:u bothers me. in
July 30. 1966 (we had only recent.ly met; he was talking about a
the end. in traditional metaphysics, is not SO much the oppositions
community of solitary beings and of ashes wilhout witness):
but the fact thatrhe;r terms have not been sufficiently op-posed.
It will thus probably be necessary to go on to other, nlore perilous. th:u they :lre nm kept ,11 a sufficient distance from one another
t'Xerciscs of an aphilosophical nature. For. after all, wha! we seck and arc not leff f.1ce 10 f.,cc tong enough. It is in this sustained op-
is the (no) point where what has come to be settled gets unselllcd. position and distancing th:ll a way for us to escapc metaphysics
where what i\ genil\(; ready to greer you gets thrown ofT course. i$~lled for and indic;ltcd. But this way C:ln only be traced from
llut SO that there may be life and health and Auid thought. it is widlin metaphysics: it is IlCCCS5:lry to begin looking at it from a
indisl)cllsable thatlhcrc be, at times. herc and there, $Orne signs metaphysic:lll>oint of view in {Ircler 10 d;$C()\'er concepLU:llly and
of a community-so that a new disruption might be undcrtaken. mcraphysically thaI it calls for nonmemphysics and the nonconccpt.
Withou! such signs we are thrown into madness. into an acceler- The text "the work of art as creation" Iries to be a marker along
ating thought th:1{ is nothing but immobilit)': spttcl destroys itself this path.... When I sl'leak of an. I can only COnsider it within
by stalling in place and lhe appearing is there bUI the form of the lhe sYSlem ofculture. In thiJ system, there is a privileged meaning:
appearcd ... a desire for other activil'ies in which Ihe reprcscntation it carriC$ wilhin itself the Illemory ofSQmething that prcecdes
102 CHAPTER FOlll MAX WUAU 103
culture ... it carries into the heart ofculture the necessity of the name of the gorge CUt into a mountainside, not far from some spring
nonc\lltural, and inw the hear! of represent.1tion the necessity of or source, but also the fall: the faU, and then the torrent, the dam, high
non presence. tension, danger of death). I .. ,1
Francine. J was happy to see you the other day at the College
October 3, 1967, in a postscript:
International dc Philosophie, in the company of friends who found just
I want to be: done with our language of vision. Our language is a the right words to speak about Max.
klllguage ofcops, a langua~e of reportS. We spend our time report- You remain in my thoughts, the twO of you, faithfully.
ing others, direering tr3ffic. But I don'l w:lnt 10 bea cop. Vision Jacques D.
is founded on speech, not the contrary. Spec:ch is the emission of
space (spacing .. ,). We musdind a way 10 IC3vein words only the p.s. (September 10, '99t).
residue of vision Ihat is indispensable to their being "received." I had not yet read Florence portCeaux flUes, or L·'preu~. I receive them and
am reading them today as a present gift-that is to 5.1.y, for one who knows
February 12, t¢S: how 10 wait. And in order to prolong thegifi {doni (3 word that no doubt
orients an impossible and thus necessary thoughl, the most absent and
I inlend to write a new "sequel." Up until now I was profoundly
most urgent of our prcsent time, that of the unthinkable but irrecusable
disturbed because I could see only bit$ and pieces of movemenu,
sharing oud, r will cite, following the "and gives and gives" cited earlier,
without •.my links. It flOW seems thallhese fragmenu of trajectoriCi
"Give" {Donnel, in Flor~nu partie aux nues. where the verb is a noun, a
have succeeded in forming a longer, more continuous gesturc. I ~n
name, and the act a call-which says it all and beyond the 311:
rhus say th31 things 3re "gesturing," even "gestating," It should be
CIVE
something like my Aenf'id (comple~ with ils own little descent into
Light of giving
Hell), I feel like sleeping-that's about all the effect it has on me.
of fecundity,
November :14, 1973 (concerning en: £Clot et phoses, which was due sponlaneous light
to appear shortly): as exorbiunt
in its self-rorgetting
It is a sorl of philosophical litany or incantation, a disjointed and
3S the first circle openingi
nightmarish mathematics--in short,:l land Ihen there's an under-
lined word thaI I haye never been able to make Out, something like
And since I could feel something in int breaking through ill these
"black" or "drunk"} philosophy. It is at once rigorous and rigorously
texts, around the intimate, the interior, and the point, here in Florroce . . ,
impossible (as with everything that is rigorously rigorous). As you
-as in L'ipreuve, where something "intimate but very rar away" is
can see, I don't quite know what it is and I am afraid that others
recalled-we read:
will know even le$$. , .. It seems 10 me, when you have it right
before your eyes, to be a kind of philosophical poem, composed by a Memory
Presocratic Lucretiw who is beginning to lose il. without knowing il opens
this immense poem, from the Qlh4T side, the side of the body, deep clown 5. M<';moi,e/ ~nllc, IlIvoi' I'ouvre 1 .•. pour que put"", poindu d" l'imimc.
in the throot where il is engorged (and I even hear in this expression the 6, Coc:ur ~ I'intim" fanx,,,h,,.
CHAPTER 5
JEAN-MARJE BENOIST
APRIL 4- 194~-AUGUST I, 1990
,.,
106 CIIAPTltk ~ lVI!
took a critical stance toward the structuralist movement, :md Tyrallni~ tiu THE TASTE or TEARS
logos, a study of the relation between Plato, the Sophists, and the birth
of metaphysics. For the god of writing is also the god of de;/lth. He will punish the
During the 19705 Benoist was considered a member of the group imprudent who, in their qUCSt for unlimited knowledge, end up
of nOulltal1X philosoph~ who garnered much media attention in France. drinking tJr~ disJOlt/~d book.... To drink the:: tear and wonder about
(Benoist engaged Gilles Deleuze in a heated public debate concerning the the strangeness of iu lasle compared to one's own ...
movement of the nQtlWflUX philosophes in the columns of Le Monti~.) In 'ean.Marie Benoist. n~ G~rry ofIk Mdap!tysicul PQ<ts
1978 Benoist ran as a candidate for the right·leaning party Union pour
la democratie fr3.n~ai~ (UDF) against communist candidate Georges To have a friend: to keep him. To follow him with your eyes. Still to Stt
Marchais in the legislative elections. Two pamphlets outlining his ideas him when he is no longer there and [0 try to know. linen to, or rad him
against the left (Un singulin pragmmm~ and Les nOIlWllUZ primaires) were when you know that you will Stt him no longer-and that is to cry.
published that year. In &ptember of 1978 Benoist was married a second To have a friend, to look at him, to follow him with your eyes,
time, to Catherine cecile Dcwavrin, with whom he had two children, to admire him in friendship, is to know in a more intense: way, already
Oli\·ier and Alexis. In t9S0 he took part in the nationwide discussion iniwed, always insistent, and more and more unforgettable, that one of
regarding the French educational system, publishing lA gtnlnJlion sacrifi« the two of you will inevitably Stt the other die. One of us, each sa.ys to
as his contribution to the debate. himself, the day will come when one of the twO of us will s« himself no
In the early IgSos Benoist was a professor at ew York University in longer stting the other and so will carry the other within him a while
France and lectured at l'ELole Nationalc des Ponu et Chausstts. He ~ longer, his eyes following without Stting, the world suspended by some
held the chair of history of modern civilization at the CoII~gc de France, unique tear, each time unique, through which everything from then on,
from 19S1 to 1990, where he became a friend and colleague of Roland through which the world itself-and this day will come-will come to be
Barthes. Throughout his career Benoist taught periodically in the United reAected quivering, ralecting disappearance itself: the world, the whole
Stat~, as a visiting professor at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, world, the world itself, for death takes from us nOi only some particular lifc
New York University, and Georgetown. within the world, some moment that belongs to us, but, each time, without
As a result of his growing interest in polities and foreign policy, limit, someone through whom the world, and 6rst of all our own world,
Benoist founded the European wter for International Relations and will have opencd up in a both finite and infinite-mortally infinite-way.
SWlIegy (CERIS) in 1984 and joined the national advisory board to the That is the blurred and transparent testimony borne by this tear, this small,
right-wing political parry Rassemblemcnt pour 131 Rcpublique (RPR) in in6nitely small, tear, which the mourning of friends passes through and
t985. During the IgSos he was a regular contributor to Le Mond~ and u endures even before death, and always singularly so, always irreplaceably.
Figura (for which he wrote articles on democracy and liberalism) as well Jean.Marie Benoist, with whom I shared, among so many other things, a
as to Le QuotiJi~n de Paris. Benoist also aUlhored a number of prefaces veneration for John Donne, will have spoken so well of what he called,
for exhibition catalog; notable among them is a teXI devoted 10 Claude twenty years ago, "the geometry of the metaphysical poets," and of this
Garache. The last book he authored, Us Qutils d~ la Iilxrrt, advocated a tear of the world, of world, this world-tear in A Valediction: Of Wuping:
return to Rousseau and Momesquieu.
Benoist died of cancer on August I, 1990, at the age of forty-eight in A globe, yea world. by In:!! impression grow,
Till thy Ic:ars mix'd with mine: do overRow
the city of Mcgtve in the Haute·Savoie region of France.
This world, by watc:rs sent from thee, my heavens dissolvM so.
Tr;IO~lut:d by P,uak.Anl'lt: 8"'uh and Michael Naal for lh;~ volu~. Fint French publication.
gOOt ckll"nnn.." InJ~,,·MIl~ &-I,; 1-1_~.1 (Imprimc:ne I..:U'l<ty GfaphiC'. '99J).
~I..t
IJ-'7. TM ~ffl'y oft},,. M"",pII,,;n./ Pom, t:IlW in the epigr:>ph. is the propoo.ed tide of
a book th:lc w.~ never published.
J.e.\N-MAltI~ BENQIS" 109
Then there comes a time. in the course of a generation, the gravity acute sense of the tremors that transform the landscape of history and
of which becomes for some, myself among them todtly, morc and more the ground of thought. (I :11» thinking here of his very first articles,
palpable, when you reach an age, if you will, where more and more friends which announced an entire trajectory, 'Towards an International Social
leave you, oftentimes younger th:lO you, sometimes.'iS young as a son or Contract," tlnd "Marcuse, an Aufldiirer againsl Enlightenment," and then
daughter. Myadmiration,3s well as my affection, for Jean~Marie has in fact of the tWO beautiful books t.hal followed in 19751 Tyranf/ie du logos and
resembled, for close to a quarter ofa century now, that of an older brother The Strtfetural RetJOlut;on, which we must read again and again; }'Oll will
who finds himself astonished, and more and more so, though always in notice, as I have, how well they have held up over lime, resisting the
a somewhat tender way. by the :lUdacity of thought, me growing force, various f.'lshions of the day.)
the justified self-confidence of someone whom he first knew, precisely, I wish instead to turn today to lhe "golden years;' those I quietly
with the still tender traiLS of a very young thinker, but one already sharp, lament and thaI are less visibly public: the numerouS visits in London
rigorous, ironic., konoclastic, unsubmissive, covetous above all else of his tit the French Institute or in Oxford when I would come for lectures,
freedom, his audacity, and his daring. During our first encounters at the the wonderful hospitality of JeanMMarie and Nathalie, everything Ihat
Ecole Normale in 1,964, I remember having felt some perplexity, along htlppens between friends around an amoossador of culture who is open,
with a SOH ofirritated concern. Bm a certail\ complicity brought us closer intelligent, joyous, inventive, incisive Uean~Mtlrie Benoist was exemplary
together very qu.i~kly thro~gh our work :lnd our r~ding, a joyful a,.nd in these ways as well), tile meetings, [he discussions, the "purties," lhe
confidcnt comphclfy 1,0 whIch lowe a great deal: It reassun:d mt.~h a nighttime jaunts through the city.
time when I needed it, :lnd it WIIS to do so for years with II ronswncy I am presently rere3ding all the lellers from thal period l and there
for which I will always Ix: grateful, the sort of W3rm fidelity withom are many of them (several spoke of his work in progress, of great books
which things have little meaning. I like to S3y "complicitY" because often, promised on The pro~ of man and the English mct.'lphysical poet$-
in the beginning, between 1968 {lnd 1975, a dee.p agreement (I mean in promised and given through other books :lnd under other tides}, and since
our philosophical thought (lnd interests) sometimes took on the :lir of an that time I've always kept on one of my sheh.·cs a strange and precious
allitll\ce in a symbolicnl conspiracy in the midst of the culture. of the time. object, somelhing more th:m precious. in truth, a priceless sign signed by
And I liked a 101, indeed I never stopped liking, the mischievous eye, the his hand (his large and beautiful black handwriting, high, 3ngul:lt, quick,
devilish grin in the middle of that somewhat childlike face, the sometimes at once impatient and perfect): a white box on lhe bottom of which is
biting irony, the polemical verve of Jean~Marie. written "This is nOl a pipe," and then, right below, the word "is" under
I will not speak here of his work, or, I should also say, of his erasure with anx through it: "this is a pipe." One day (and this is part of a
action, of all that is most readily accessible, public, and known: always long story) I had confided to JC:ln~Marie what a certain gift meant to me,
intelligent and courageous, this work in action was a constanteng3gement a square pipe given to me by my father shortly before his death. This pipe,
with Ihe philosophical, political, and religious debates of the limes. A which stood upright on its bowl when I put it down on the ttlble to wrile,
provocative engagement, sometimes ahead of the times, the conviction had been lost many times, found again, broken, rep.'lired--3nd one day
of:1O enlightened avant-gardist. of someone sent out tlhead to enlighten forgotten in London, in the Be.noisu' living room. Having repatriate<! it
uS--3nd I mean this in the sense of the Enlightenment and of his dear after receiving my telegram, Jean~Marie himself in turn forgol to bring it
Montesquieu. (It was particularly that beacon entitled Marx est mort-in when he came to visit meon the rued'Ulm, so he then sent it. to methrough
19701-that, in spite of my agreement with the essence of the "theses," the mtlil, recalling, at the bottom of the box, that no, re:llly, between us,
an agreement that he invoked in advance, caused me to have some and how righl he was, this given thing, though il was also one, would not
reservations, which I still htlve loday-why conceal it?--eoncerning the have been a pipe.
effects sought after, the stt:lt.egy, the connotations, or, so LO speak, the I enn feel that by writing with a <:ertain lone, and by privileging
"pragmatics" of the judgment, tlnd these reservations, t~ which ~e wtlS some memorit$ rather than olhers, I :11n letting myselfbc invaded tonight,
sensitive alld which he judged, I t.hink, with some seventy, had Silently at this hour, by English signs: English because I was so happy during
begun to sep<'lrate us, though even when Ihey IlCC:lme more pronounced our meetings in London (probably more than in Paris. which I blame
they never compromised the friendship I have mentioned.) He had an in the end-blaming myself first of all, of eourse-when I Ihink Ih:u it
I 10 CII ....TRR' IVII
was Ihings still much 100 "Parisian;' that is, too provincial) what mighl
appear to be idcologico-political divisions bUI are, in fact, little more than CHAPTER 6
~Lty infighting, things that did not concern us, that should not have
concerned either him or me, parochial tempestS, that ended up "clouding"
our relationship; I blame myself for this more than ever today, and for
having taken these things much more seriously than they deserved to be, LOUIS ALTHUSSER
as if death were not keeping watch, as if we were not supjX)St:d to Stt it
coming; bUI I always knew-and I blame myself today for nOI having OCTOBER 16. 1918-OCTOBER 22, /990
lold him Ihis--that these c10uch left intact in me what Ihey seemed to
conceal of my friendship; and even when we had, as we say, lost sigh I of
one anolher, I remained fascinated at a distance by the grand gestures of
this hell of a man, even if I sometimes mumbled to myself); Eng/un too
bttau.sc I fclt how much England had marked his thinking, about politics
in particular; Eng/un, finally, becauscof certain literary passions, as I rlave
said, that I sh:ued with him, and that proh.ably wem beyond literature,
toward whal he called,once again in Th~GrommyoflM Melophysial P(Nu.
"proper names in shreds," or "thedisc:ourse on shadows," and, particularly,
"anamorphosis and the lear."
Yes, we must read and reread whar Jean-Marie BenoiSI has left us.
I will do so again, but for the moment, between confiding and thinking, Considered to be one of the most influential Wdlern
which are never lotaUy foreign 10 one another, I am uying to discern what Ihinkers on Marxism, Louis Althusser was born in 1918
he will have let us glimpse about rears: through tears. in the: ciry of Birmandreis, near Algiers, 10 Charles-
He does nOI re.ach us that we mUSI nor cry; he reminds us thai we Joseph Althusse:r and Lucienne Marthe Berge:r. Born
musl not /aJU a lear: "The act of tasting the tear is a desire 10 reannex the into a pied-noir family, Atthusser lived in Algeria until
other"; one must not "drink the: lear and wonde:r abom the strangeness of 1930, when his father was sent 10 Marseillcs as a st·
its taste compared to one's own." nior bank e:xecuuve. After six years in Marseilles, where
Therefore: not to cry over one:sdf. (Bul does on~ ever do Ihis? Does Ahhusser alu=nded the Lyctt Saint Charles, the family
one ~v~r do anything but this? That is the qucstion that quivers in ev~ry moved 10 Lyon. Ahhusser there allended the Lvcte du
tear, deploration or imptot:llion il$C.lf.) Pare, studying under Jean Guinon, and prepared for the
One: should not develop a taste for mourning, and yet mourn we entrance exam to the Ecole Normale Superieure. Though
mll.!t. admilled ro the school in 1939, his educational plans had
W~nlll.il. bUI we must not like it-mourning, that is, mourningit.Ielj. to be delayed when he was called up 10 military service
if such a thing exists: nOl to like or love chrough one's own tear but only and dispatched to the TrainingCenter for Reserve Cadel
lhrough the olher, and every tear is from lhe other, the friend, the living, Officers in Issoire. In June 1940 he was captured by the
as long:ls we ourselves are living, reminding us, in holding life, to hold on Germans and spent more than four years in a prisoner-
to it. of-war camp in Schleswig-Holstein. Althusser's memoirs
and correspondence delailing his internment have been
published asjourna/ de cap/illit!: Sta/ag XAI'94Q-/945.
At the end of the war, Althusscr was finally able:
to pursue his sludies at the Ecole Normale Superieure.
In 1946 he met H~lene: Rytmann-ugotien, who would
111 (HAPT.... .sIX 1,0\)1$ ,\I.TlIUUIlIt 113
become his lifetime companion and whom he would eventually marry in declared unfit to plead (non-lieu under the French penal code) and was
t976. Helene was a milimnt in Lyon in the 193°5 :Illd had taken p:m in confined to the Sainte~Anne psychi:llric hospital. For the next $Cveral years
Resistance activities during the war. he lived in various public and private clinics in the Paris area. Althusser
Soon after the war, Althusser began suffering from depression and e:xplilins his actions and his Slate of great mental confusion at the time
was admiued to a pS)'chi:mic hospital. While convalescing in a small of tllis event in his posthumously publi.shed autObiography, The Future
town in the French Alps, he wrote his diplome J'ltutki Sllpirieure$. "On Lasts J-Orevt:r.
Comcm in the Thought of G. w. F. Hegel." He had started to read Hegel Althusser died in 1990 of cardiac arrest at the Denis Forestier
seriously in t5N6 under the influence of his close friend lacques Martin. Geriatric Center. A number of very signiticant works have been published
Both Althusr-er and Martin successfully defended theses on Hegel with since his death, including tWO volumes of :J;utobiographical writings, one
Gaston Bachelard. volume of correspondence. two volumes of psychoo.nalytic writinj..."5, and
At the Ecole Normalc, Ahhusser came to know lean-Toussaint four volumes of philosophical and political writings.
Desanti and the Vietnamese Marxist philosopher ,md phenomenologist
Tnlll Due Thao. He played an active role in the Catholic ''Tala Circle" as
well as in the students' union, which was fighting for official recognition.
Althusser passed his agrlguriol1 exam in 1948. scoring tirst in the written
examination ;'Ind second in the oral.
In 1948 Ahhusser was appointed philosophy tutOr or rtp!rirellr (a
carman in the school's slang) at the Ecole Norl1lale SupCrieure. a position
that endeared him to the students he c0<1ched for the ogrtgation exam. He
held this post (officially as maitrt'-assiJrll11f and secretaire de "Ecole !iu!roire
of the Ecole Normale Superieurc) umil the end of his career in November
19 o. Ahhusser defended his d()('foYOt d'erar at the University of Picardy in
Amiens in 1975 on the basis of published work.
His first book, fl4oll/csquiell: Lo politique el I'hiJtoire. appe:lfed in
1959. In l¢o he edited and tr3nsl:ned a number of Feuerb.1ch's writings,
collected under the title ManifeSf(!S philosophiqu4S. His seminal text For
Marx (1965), followed by &adingCapital, written with Etienne Balibar and
others (1965), Lenin and Philosophy alld Other &saY$ (1969), and Philosophy
and the Spontaneous Phi/owphy of the Scientists alld OtMr &saY$ (1974),
constituted a fundamental renewal of Marxist thought. Long considered
the leading intellectual in the French Communist Party, which he had
joined in 1948, Althusser engaged in a bitter Struggle during the 1970S
tlgainst the party and publicly criticized it in 1978 in C~ qui fte pellt plus
dur(!r dam It: parti commlmi$u.
From the 195~ onward Althusscr was under constant medical
supervision and endured many years ofhospitali'l.3tion, electroconvulsive
treatment, narcotherapy. and analysis for manic depression. He was also
deeply affected by the suicide in August 1903 of his friend Jacques Martin,
to whom Fol' Marx is dedicated.
Alrhusser's life took a dramatic turn in November 1980 when he
was arrested for the sirangulation murder of his wife. He was ultimately
LOOI' ALTIIO»tt" 115
TEXT READ AT LOUIS ALTHUSSER'S recall not only the light moments and Ihe carefree laughter of day-to-
FUNERAL day life but the intense moments of work, te:'lching, and thinking, of
the philosophical and political pokmos, or all the wounds and the worst
I knew in advance thai t would be unable to speak toony, unable, as they heartbreaks, the moments ofdrama and ofmourning, there is always, as we
S3Y, to lind the words. know, upon the death of a friend, thai culpable tcndency--egotistical, to
Forgive me, then, for reading, and for reading not what I believe I be sure, narcissistic as weli, but irrepressible-that consists in bemoaning
should say--does anyone ever know what to say at such times?-bul just and taking pity, mal is, taking pity on oneself, by s..1ying, as I myself do,
enough to prevent silence from completely taking over, n few shreds of because these conventional words nonetheless manl1ge to convey a certain
what I was able to tear away from the silence within which I,like you, no truth about this compassion: "A whole part of my life, a long, rich, and
doubt, might be tempted to take refuge al this moment. intense siretch of my living self has been interrupted today, comes to an
I learned of Louis's death less than twenty-four hours ago upon my end and thus dies with Louis in order 10 continue to accompany him, as
rerurn from Prague-and the very name of that city already strikes me in the paSt, but this time without return and into the depths of absolule
as so violent, almost unpronounceable. I knew that upon returning from darkness," What is coming toan end, what Louis is laking away wilh him,
Prague I had to all him: I promised him I would. is nOI only something or other that we would h3ve shared at some point
Someone who is here today and who was with Louis when I spoke to or another, in one place or another, but thc world itself, a certain origin
him l:.lst on the phone probably remembers: when I promised to caU him of the world-his origin. no doubl, but also that of the world in which I
and go visit him after my trip, his last words, the last words I would hear lived, in which we lived a unique slary. It is 11 StOry that is, in allY C3se,
from Louis, were, "If I'm still alive, yes, give me a call and come over, and irreplaceable, and il will have had one meaning or another for the two of
hurry." J answered him somewhat playfully and in an offhanded way, in us, even if this meaning could not have been the same, and not even the
order toconeeal my ::tnxiety and my sadness, "Oby, I'll give you a calland same just for bim. It is 11 world that is for us the whole world, the only
come over." world, and it sinks inlO an abyss from which no memory--even if we keep
Louis, there's no more time left, and I no longer have the strength to the memory, and we will keep il-<:an $3ve it.
call you, or even to speak-not to you (yOli arc at once too absent and tOO Although I find a certain intolerable violence in this movement that
dose: in me, inside me), and, even less, to others aboul you, even if they consists in bemoaning one's own de:'lIh upon the death of a friend, r have
are, as is here Ihe case, your friends, our friends. no desire [0 abstain completely from it: it is the only way left to keep
1 don't have the heart to relale stories or to deliver a eulogy: there Louis in me, to keep myself by keeping him in me, just as,l am sure, you
would be tOO much 10 say and this is not the righl time. Our friends, are all doing, each with his or her own memory (which actually becomes
your friends who are here today, know why it is almost indecent to speak memory only through Ihis movement of mourning), each with his or her
righl now-and to continue 10 address our words to you. But silence tOO own litt!etQrn-offpieceofhistory. And this was such a rich,tormented,and
is unbearable. I cannot bear the thought of silence, as if you in me could singular history, a murderous and SlilI unthinkable tragedy, inseparable as
not bear the thought. well from the history of our time, so laden with the entire philosophical,
Upon the death of a loved one or a friend, when you have shared political, geopolitical history of our lime-<l history that each of us still
so much with them (and this has been my good fortune, for my life has apprehends with his or her own images. And there were so m."my images,
been linked in so many strange ways to that of Louis Ahhusser for some Ihe most beautiful and the most terrible, though all forever indissociable
thirty-eight years now, beginning in '952, when the caiman received in from the unique adventure that bears the name Louis Althusser, Our
his office the young student I then was, and then again later when, in belonging to this time-<lnd I think I can speak for everyone here-was
the same place, I worked at his side for almost twenty years), when you indelibly marked by him, by whal he sought, experimented with, and
risked at the higheSl of CoSts; it was marked by all the movements of
his passion, whether determined or suspended, at once authOritarian and
TralUlatw by ~l.,.AlIoe Bt"..1t "oJ MIO:h"d NUll for this volume. First FrClKb publil::n;ol'l, hesitant, contradictory, consequential, or convulsive, all the movements
~""""'is AldlU$$C.t UI kllm ftu~1 <4 ([kccmbcr 1990): 2.5-26. of that extraordinary p.'1ssion that left him no respite, since it spared him
116 CIli\P1'Il. SIX LOI;IS ALTIW5$I;. 117
nothing, with il$ theatrical rhythms, il$ gre.u voids, its long stretches of collective tragedies of our time---of the time that I, like you. will ha'·e
silt'nce, ilS vertiginous retreats, all those impressive interruptions them- shared with him. Never, in spite of everything that might have separ:lled
seh-es interrupted by demonslr;ltions, forceful offensives, and powerful us or distanced us from one another, was I able or did I wish toobserw:. that
eruptions of which each of his books preserves the burning trace, having is, with the neutrality ofa spcct:nor, what w:ts happeningto him or through
first transformro the landscape around the '·okano. him. For everything th:tt, thanks to him or through him, has occupied my
Louis Althusser traversed so many Iivcs--ours, first of all-so many cntire aduh life, including those de\'astating trials of which we are :til
personal, historical, philosophical, and political adventures; he marked, in~ thinking, I will always remain, from the bottom of my hearl, grateful.
Hected, and inAuenced so Illany discourses,a.clions, and existences through Grateful for what is irreplaceable. And whal remains most present in my
the radiating and provocative force of his thought, of his ways of being, eyes, most alive today, closest and most precious, is, of course, his face,
speaking, Icaching, that the most diver'SC and contradictory testimonies Louis's so very handsome face, that high forehead, hi~ smile, everything
will never succeed in exhausting Iheir source. The fact that each of us had that, in him, during the moments of peacc-and there were mOlllents of
a different rcl;llionship with Louis Althussc.r (and I am not spc'aking just peace, as many of you here know-radiated kindness. the: need for 10\'e
about philosophy or politics), the f..ct that ~ch of us knows Ihat,through and the gi"ing oflo\'e in return, displ2ying an incomparable attenti\'(~ness
this singular prism, we caught but a gljmpse of a secret, an inexhaustible to the youth of what is coming, curiously on the lookoUI from daybreak on
secrct for m, no doubt, but :1150, though in a completdy different way. for the signs of things still waiting 10 be understood. everything th.1t UpselS
fathomless for him as wdl, the fact th:lt Louis was other for others, for order, programs, facile connections, and predictability. What remain~ for
other people,:ll one time or another, within academia and withoUl, at the me most alive tOOny is what in the: light of thar fat:e bespoke a lucidity
rue d'Ulm or elsewhere in France, within the Communist Party. within :11 once implac.1hle and undersmnding. by turns resigned or triumphalll.
p.1tties and oULSide them, in Europe and beyond, the (act mal each o( us not unlike the verve of certain of hi!; declarations. Whal I lo"e most in
lo,'ed a different Louis Althusser, at some time or another, in some decade him. no doubt because it was him, what fascinated me in what Olhers no
or another,or, as it was my good fonune, right up until the v~ry end-this doubt knew better than I, and from much closer up than I, was his sense
g~nc.rous multiplicity, this very o\'~rabundance makes it incumbent upon o( and taste for grandeur, (or a certain grandeur, for the great theater of
us nOt to tOL<Jlizc or simplify. nOI to immobiliz.e him or fix a trajectory. not political tragedy whe.re what is larger than life. comes to occupy, misle:td,
to S(.'Ck $Orne advantage, not to cancclthings out or tr), to get even, and or pitile'isly break the private body o(its actors.
especially nOt to calculate, nOt to appropriate or rea.ppropriate (even i( it Whenever public discourse about Althusser drops I>ropcr names like
be through that pmadoxical form of manipulating or calculating reappro· SO many signposts or trails upon a territOry to be occupied, the names that
priation called rei«tion), not 10 take hold of what was inappropriable and Co1n be heard are, for ex:tmple.those ofMolltcsquieu or Rousseau. Marx or
musl remain so. E:lch of us no doubt has a thOUS.'lOd (aces, but those who Lenin. Yet those who came close to Althusscr. whether bt'hind lhe great
knew Louis Althus~r know that this law found in him a shining, striking, curtainso(that politicaltheatet or by his bedside in the hospital. know they
and hyperbolic example. Hi.s work is great, first of all, by what it attests owe it to the truth to name others. Pascal, for example. and Dostoye"sky,
to and by what it risks, by what it traversed with that multiple, fractured, and Nietz$C.hc--.and Artaud.
and often interrupeed flash, by the enormous risks taken and all that was At bouom, I know that Louis doesn'l hear me; he hears me only
endured: his adVenture is singular, it belongs to no one. inside me, inside us (though we are only ever Otm~It~$ from that place
I have lillie trouble speaking here (as I f«11 must) about what might within us where the other, the mortal olher, resonates). And I know well
have separated us, or indted opposed us (implicitly or not, sometimes Ihat his voice within me is insisting that I nOt pretend to speak to him.
harshly, Over both small and important matters), because none of this ever And t also know that I have nothing to teach yOll who are hcre,si"ct you
compromiscd in the least the foundation of our friendship, which was in 3re here.
(act all the more dear to me on account of these things. For at no time But beyond this grave and above your heads, I dream of addres~ing
was I able to consider whal was happening to him or through him, in those who will come after him, or already after us, those who, as C.lll1 be:
these places that I still inhabit with him. :loS :Ionything other than a string seen by more than one sign. unfortunaldy, are tOO much in a hurry to
o( uphe.:tovals, e:lnhquakcs, or awakenings o( ,'olcanocs, the singular or understand, interpret, classify. fix, reduce, simplify, close off, and judge-
118 CHAPTU 51X
and thus are (enain to misunderstand, whether we are talking about this
most singular destiny or about the trials of existcnce, thought, and politics, CHA PT_E_R_7'-- _
which can never be separated. I would ask them to stop for a moment, to
t3ke the time to listen to our time (for we had no other), to decipher as
patiently as possible everything in our time: that was marked and promised
in the life, work, and name: of Louis Alrhusser. NO!: only lxau~ me: scale:
of this destiny should command respttt (as weU as a re:spttt for the: time-
our time-from which these: other generations come) but abo lxause the
still open wounds, the scars or hopes that were: ours and that they will
• EDMOND JABES
APRIL 16, '912-jANUARY 2, '99'
recogniu in this time, are sure to teach them something essential of what
remains to be: heard, read, thought, and done. As long as I live, that is, as
long as I retain the memory of what Louis Ahhusser gave me to live with
him, close 10 him, this is what I would like to recall to those who will nOI
have been of his time or who will not have taken the time to turn toward
him, And this is what I hope to say bener onc day. without bidding adieu,
for Louis Althusser.
I wish now to turn it over to him, to let him speak. For another last
word, once again his. Rereading some of his work late into last night, the
following passage imposed itself on me rather than I reading it or electing
it to be reread here. It is from one of his first texts, "Benolazzi and Brecht" Edmond JabCs was born in Cairo on April 16, 1912,
('96')' though his father inadvertently registered him as being
born on the fourteenth of that month. JalXs often made
Yd, we :Ire: first united by an institutioo-the pcrfomunce--but.
mention in his work of this original difference; in £Ira
more: deeply. by the: same: myths, the same: tM:mcs, th:lt gO\ern us
('969), he asks: his it to this error in calculation that I
without our con~m, by the same: spon~nC'OUSly li"ed idrology.
unconsciously owe the feeling that I have always b«n
Ya. Cl'en i(it is the ideology of the: poor parcxnUm<~, as in EJ
separated from my life by fony-eight hours? The two
NOSI Mimn, we eat of the same: bre:ld. we have the: same: r.lges, the:
days added to mine could be lived only in death,"
same rebellions, the S3me m:ldn~ (at least in memory, where this
JalXs's family belonged to Cairo's high Jewish bour-
ever-imminent possibility haunts us), if not the same prostr:llion
geoisie. Though his family retained their Italian national-
~fore a time unmoved by any History. Yes, like Mother Courage,
ity, they remained French in cuhure. falXs thus received
we h:lve the S3me wat uour gates,and a handsbrt::lchh from us, if
a French education in Cairo, first at the CoII~gc Saint-
not in us. tht: S3me horriblt: blindness, the: same dun in our eyes, the
Jean-Baptiste-de-Ia--Salle (1917-24) and the:n at the Lyctt
S3me carlh in our mouths. We: eve:n have: the ~me dawn and night,
Fran,ais (1924-29). From '930 to 1934 he worked toward
we skin the same abysses: our unconsclousness, \Ve eve:n share: the:
a HCfflce de leures at the Sorbonlle. He: then abandoned his
same history--fllld that is how it all started,'
studies to dedicate himself to writing, supporting himself,
like his father, as a stockbroker.
JabCs's mother was a small, self-effacing woman
who withdrew into her$Clf upon the death of her daugh~
ter, Marce:lle, in 1924. Innumerable traces of this trau-
I. Lou", Althu_r, "The 'P1«oIo Te:;ouo': Bc:rroIuu and Br«hl.~ in For Marx. II"1n$.. Ben matic loss of his oIdcr sister from tuberculosis can be
Br""""'"r eN""" York: \'''roo. 1996), 151. found in Jabb's writings. Ja~s once compared this loss
'"
IlDNOSD IIl".s '21
to a "second birth." He said in :In inrervH=:w: "My sister died practically philosophy, psychoanalysis, politics, and the arts, it confronts some of the
in my arms. I was .. lone at her deathbed. I remcm1x:r having tOld her most pressing issues of our time, from the question of Jewish identity to
somcthing like: 'You can't die. It's nm possible: To which she replied the $hooh to apartheid.
with cxactly these words: 'Don't think about death. Don't cry. Onc cannOl Jabes insists throughout his writing on thc relationship between his
escape onc's destiny: Th:u day I understood that there is a klllguage for own destiny as an exile :lind the discovery of a Judaism he had bJrel y
death, just as there i<; a language for life."· suspected. The general orientation of his writing is perh3p5 best reflected
During the 19305 and early 1C)40S, JabC.s worked with 5(:\'cr31 organi. in the exergue of The Book of Qt~$liofU: "You are the one who writes
2.3lions tohc1pcomool anti.Sc:mitism and fascism. He founded the League and the one who is written." In their simplicity, these words indicate the
of Youth against Antiscmitism in Cairo and was one of the organizers of movement of a search, a quesl by and for <I self that cannot take refuge or
the Groupe alHifasciste it:llien and the Groupemenl dl,.'$ amilies fran~aises. find comfort in the security of some presupposed identity. As he wrote in
It was during these years thaI JllbCs publishcd his first poems and met a very e3rly poem, 31rcady announcing this sort of autobiography of the
such notable figures as Ro~er Caillois, Paul Eluard, Andre Gide, Henri other man, this "other subject": "I am $C3f"ching for a man I do nOi know,
Mich.1ux, and Philippe Soupauh. labCs's long correspondence with M:lIX who has ntver been more nlysdfthan since: I h3ve becn looking for him."
Jacob also dates oock to this period. In 1935 he married Arlette Cohen, Throughout The Book of QueniotU (1963-73), Th~ Book of Rnnn·
with whom he had two daughters, Vi\·iane and Nem:H. Manas (19j'6-80), The BookofMargitU (197S-8.d, The BookofLimiu (19S2-
The disco\'cry of the extermination camps in 1945 pro\'ed 10 be a 87), :lnd The Book of Hospitality (1991), Jal,es continued to invcstig:lte the
defining event in Jabes's life and work. It led 10 a long meditation on the privileged role ofthe stranger in the experienceoflhe book and the unique
meaning ofhi<;toryand the possibility ofwritmg about suchan unthinkable relationship 1x:twcen life and writing. When he wrote, "I am. I become.
c\·ent. In the late 19-105 and 19505 labescontributed regularly to La parI du I write," he: was seeking to describc= nOt only his relationship to the: book
Silhk, 3 surrealist journal founded in C3iro, as well as to numerous other bUt the very nature of his freedom.
Iitcr:lry magaz.ines in Franc~ and elsewhere. In 1957. JabCs left:ln Egypt JaJ>es was the rccipient of many prestigious awards, among them Ihe
that h:.d becom~ un~arable for J~ws and St:ttled definitively in Paris with Prix des Critiques (1970), the Prix des Arts, des Lettres ct des Sciences
his family, taking French n:.tion:ltily in 11)67. This unchosen exile marked a de la Fondation du Judaisme Franl;"3is (1982),lhe Pri" Pasolini (1983), the
new poimofdeparture in an unfof(:~eablcad\'enlurethat would lead h~m, Citaddla Prize (t9S7), and the Gr3nd Prix N3tiol131 de P06ie (1987).
in his words, "from the desert to the book." JabCs's first major collcc[lon As if by design, the nory of Jabb's mistakcn birth date had 3n
of por:ms, I Build My Dwelling (poems wriuen betWttll 19-43 and 1957), untlpceted sequel:lt the other end ofhis life. When Gallimard republish«t
was published in 1959. The 1950$ w~re also marked by friendships with in 1991 Ja bes's Book of Resnnh/unces. the shon biographical notice ga \'C as
Maurice Blanchol, Rene Char. Michel Leiris, and Maurice Nadeau, as wen the date of JabCs's death January 4, 1991, when he had in f3etdied in Paris
as Gabriel Bounoure, who would b~come the first important critic to wrile on January 2, exactly forty~eight hours earlier.
on his work.
In the I ¢OS JalXs published Ihe first volumcsofhis BooJr.OfQlI~tiotlS,
a work that would garn~r him much praise and critical :lIuention. (During
most of these yeaTS JabCs was working for a film production company in
Neuilly, near Paris, and so did much of his writing on the metro to and
from work.) These books, like m:lny that were to follow, constitute an
open work that brings together poetry and narrative, wlcs and dialobrues ,
thoughts aod meditations, combining the mos! dassicallanguage with the
most inventive "writing of the book." Using the language :lind themes of
blmQod "~, f)ol tJhrn ... /nu: f:-t>rr1nU "lIN J,f.rrri CI>4m (p~m: p,,,,rc: Bdrond,
I9SJ). ~j.
lOMONO JAlb 12j
LETTER TO DIDIER CAHEN with Gabriel Bounoure (a great friendship for which I have Edmond Jabes
to thank).-
Nice·Prague. February ~9"-March I (1992) When friendship begins before friendship, it touches upon death,
Dear Didic:r, indeed, it is born in mourning. But it is also doubly affirmed, twice scaled;
From the O[herside ofthe world, where I will be on the .6th ofApril, this recognition, this gr3titude before all knowledge, is, I believe, destined
I shall join you hean and soul in this gre:u and fitting homage to Edmond to survive, And already from its birth: in all the books of questions, those
JalXs. I would have ~n-thus I am--among you. and I am pleaSt:d that bear and those that keep their name silent, beyond books and their
that this commemoration is taking place at the College International de titles, beyond blind words. Edmond Jabes knew that books are here to no
Philosophie; no place seems to me more appropriate, better suited, named, aV3il, no more Ihan questions are, nO[ to mention answers.
called, destined. From the very beginning we wished it to be a plaee that If I have the desire, if il is, in truth, so easy for me to feeJ so dose to
would welcome and encourage poetic thinking, and it is in precisely these you this Apri.l 16, all the way from the P3cific Coast, it is not only because
terms that you ha,·e chosen to mark this anniversary. the readers, admirers. and friends of Edmond JalXs are gathered in a place
At the moment when Edmond Jabes, according to his own account, that is so dose and dear to me. It is also beca~ the best witnesses of this
is reaching eighty years of age (for I remember him con6ding in me one invisible sharing-out wherein thought and the poem intersect remain, for
day certain doubu he had about his exact dale of birth and the way it me, other friends, Michel Deguy, and especially you yoursdf, dar Didier,
had ~n officially registered, as if the difference of a day or two made along with those whom )·ou've allowed me to 3ddress in this way. Please
his birth just as unlocatable, just as unthinkable, as dealh iudO, I think express my enduring affection and fiddity to Arlene JalXs.
both fer"emly and mdancholically of our first meetings some thirty years Your friend, atTectionatdy,
ago. I had just discovered The &ok of Questions, by chance, in a little Jacques
newsstand in the: suburbs, and I recall having he:ard rc=$Onate within iI,
from places at once imme:morial and at that time so little explored, so
difficult to make out, a voice thai I fdt would no longer leave us, e:ven if
one day he, Edmond Jabb, whom I did not yet know, of whom I knew
nOlhing, not even whether or where he was soli living, would one day be
silenced, Ie:aving us alone: with his books. There was alre:ady in this first
reading a certain experience of apophatic silence, of absc:nce, the desert.
paths opened up off all the beatro tracks, deported memory-in short.
mourning, e"ery impossible mourning.'
Friendship had thus already come to be reflected in mourning, in the
eyes of the poem, e,'e:n before friendship--J mean before the friendship
that later brought us together, when we were neighbors, between the ruede
l'Ep<:e de Bois and the rue d'Ulm, on one occasion with Celan, on another
'. Derrida dcvot«l twO _y' to Ja~' in the Il}6o$, "E.:Im<>nd laha and the Question of
the Book: firSt published in .964 ineri''''....
(zo, ~I), 99"'-' ,~,.nd then rCI)llbli,hed in
1961 in Wntj",il"l! DiJ/~, iranI. Abn Bass (Chicago; University ofChiCllgo Pr~s. :l. Gabriel Bounoure wu an important liter.ry eritic both befort .nd .fler the war and a
'9781, 6.t..,-8,.nd MElli",i"M me last e»ay in W,.,jjltgtllUl D>J/~~ (29-\-Joo).--TnfN. cklse: friend of Jabb. Dcrrid. dediat«l hiJ ~J,2.y MEJlipsiJ~ to him,...-TID1U.
CHAPTER 8
JOSEPH N. RIDDEL
SF.PT£MHER II, '9J,-S£PT£MBF.R 7. '99'
"5
1:16 CHAPTEt !lIGHT
Composed Cktobcr '7, 199'. and delivered on behalf of the: author October.24, 1991, at a
rneffil>rial sqvice held <II UCLA. Reprinted, with ch:r.nges, (rom ~A derni·mOl:; French lext
WiID Engli:lh traf»l3tiOfl by Samud Weber, in A",mcil's ModnniJnu; Re...luing tloc CilnfWfI;
&Ul'jI in ffonqr ofJOUJ'Io N. RidJel, ediled by Kathrync V. Lindberg arid Joseph O. Kronick
(Batlln Rc!uge: L.oui~;ana State University Pren, I9¢). ~8. Copyright 0 '995 by Lou~iana
Slau.· Univen;ly Prcu. Repr;l)led with penni..Jion.
1::1.8 CIlo\PTIIr. EIGItT JOUIPH N, aIOI)l(" U9
outside: the: unh·ersity. Yel I know that if such moments had the force and institution, his judgments on idcas and on persons, on writings ,:llld on
depth that they still retain in my heart, il is because, as brief as they were, discourses, his positions and commitments, had that solitary lucidity-
alas, and as rare, they were: inhabited :md traversed, in a manner that was yes, quite solitary, I believe, in its rigor, incisiveness, courage, irony, and
both silent and verbose, by the plX:ts and philosophers whom we read, in serenity-upon which it is preferable. I am convinced, always to rely. And I
a ccnaln way, I~Ilro; and who ga\'e friendship--for thcy were there:, I had eonfidence in him, in his solitude itself, a ce:rtain intellectual solitude;
remain convinced, only to serve friendship--ils meaning, its rhythm, its I had confidence in thc choiee he m3dc of a small number, of a eertain
breath, I would even say its inspiralion, even if they weren't always Ihe scarcity lei us say, in p:uticul3r places in the university, on the least traveled
same philosophers, the 5.11lle plX:ts, the same: works that we approached, roads, on the least-easy routes, the least-normaliud avenues of thought,
nor the same places, Ihe 5.11lle titles, and the same names, ,:It the same lime of reading ;'Ind writing. I had confidence in him, and the confidence that
:Ind in the same manner. he in turn demonstrated in me was always onc of the encouragements
In the haste of whall called thc "race to death," these:; moments, these that counted the most for me: in this country, In the shocks and struggles
places, these names, and these names of places., which we had to recogniz.e that, particularly in the lasl decade or two, have tOrmented our historical,
and which also recognized us in advance-all were as though pre-occupicd political, or academic landscape, I often found myself implicitly getting
b)' the power (both the potcntiality and the force, theJYfUJmiJ) ofthe writcrs my bearings, especially where things American w('re concerned, from
of thc past, or of the ghosts to come who spoke to each orher through us, loc's judgmcnt and positions. Without literally asking his advice (I said
in turn provoking us to speak, to make: or let them liV(:: in us, raking us that we: saweachother and spoke relati~'dy link), I drew reassurance from
as wimcs~ to each curve in the race, through the questions, the: debates. reading him, looking for bright signals in his own movcme:nts, evaluations,
the deliberations without end, through risky thoughts, accelerating or choices, in his m;anner of conducting himsclf--of driving. if )·ou will-
slamming on the brakes, through Ihe roods or the aporias of writing into which always seemed to me to be onc of the most necessary courses of
which they cast us, led us, and predicted our encounters, down to the conduct, even if,or precisely bc<.ause, it was full of risks: in short, it seemed
very manner thar we had in common, despite thc difference oflangu;ages to me more apt and equitable to be on his side,ot h;Jsid~, even if ar times it
and histories, of orienting ourselves in this heritage while understanding seemed to be the side of the road that was least s,1fe, the least comfortable
each other very quickly, with scarcely a word, il Jnn;-mol as we say in side ofsolitude or of the precarious edge.
Frcnch. /JmIi-morl, half-dead, is what I should 5.'y because death, we also I never c;alne back !O California, in the spring, without hoping to sec
knew from a gay science (strange, that gaiety of Joe's, in which I fclt thc Joe. ;and when I return in thc future there will be a shadow. I will havc to
worry, the wound, but in which I also sensed the gamble, the challenge, act as though--but how can I believe it?--our friendship did not require
and the provoc.ation}--bttause death. in short, lay waiting at evcry turn, getting together any marc, as though it had always been destined to breathe
announcing itselfbetwcen the lines and prede.stining each name. through the appa.f:lNsofbooks and dead Ictters, as it did for several years,
And Joc taught me to find my way about-I would almost say to at the very beginning. Permit me to recall a story that Joe liked to tell
drive-not only in a certain American liternture (poc, Melville, Pound publicly each time he wdcomed me to this university. I hear him c\'cn
and Siein, Stevens and Williams), an American litcrature of which he: is, now, I see his smilc, and I have the impression thar what I am about to say
I believe, one of thc very great readcrs of this century. one of thoSC'--very is spoken through him; I would cven like to tell you this story in his own
rare whcn you think of it-who have known how to put the gravest and voice, through Ilis mouth, just as one can have the desire to eat from thc
most inventive stakes of the philosophy or theory of the time to the test mouth of a dead friend-3.nd I also loved the se.nsual way Joe loved to eat,
of your literature in its gre:ltest singuktrity. But Joe, author of "Reacling and 1 loved to sllare thaI joy wilh him. It was in 1975, I believe-we didn't
America/American Readers," also helped me to orient mysclf,quitesimply know each other yet. From Buffalo, Joe, at the suggestion ofl-lil1is Miller
and nothing less, in American culturc.' Little by liltle I understood that or Eugenio Donato, had scnt me Th~ InwruJ Bell. Already rhis book,
where Amcrican culture was concerned, and in p:uticular the academic which opened up so man)' new a\'enucs, played gravely and powerfully
with thc proper n;ame, which is tosay, with death. and it is one ofthe things,
•. IOK~ Riddd. MRading Amnia/American Readen: M<1tkrtt u..KWJtr NfJU/99 among others. that impressed me immcdi;ately. For of what, of whom, to
(I¢t): 9OJ-27· whom are we speaking, here. now, in his absolute absence. if nOl of the
'30 C"'\l'TUO EICHT
name, in and to the name, of Joe Riddel? Even during the course oflife, easily never have reached him, the race thus n~ver coming to an end or
of our lifetime as of Joe's lifetime, we know this and knew it already: the el~ being condemned to the fate of those "dead letters" wherein is buried
name signs death and marks life with a fold (rid<!'l to be deciphered. The the enigma ofall the Bartlebys of the world, our impossible brothers ("On
name races toward death even more quickly than we,do, we who naively errands of life, these lettersspetd to death. Ah Bartlebyl Ah Humanity''')'
believe that we bear it. It bears us with infinite speed toward the end. It is in Mont.hs later, perhaps more than a year later-I don't remember any more
adv3nce the name ofa dead person, And ofa premature death thatcomes to all tbe stages, or how many detours or universities it passed through, or
us in it, through it, without ever being properly our own. Withom waiting, how many friendly hands-finally my letter reached Joe ther~, or rather,
Joe followed in Williams, as he often did elsewhere, the fatal passageofhis here, in California, where J for my part bad nOt yet set foot. Joe oflen told
own name. One letter passing the other along the way, the permutation of this story, in this very place. I frequently thought ofit,later, above all while
two letters sufficed to play with everything that encrypted itself already, reading what he had wrinen. :tlways with the s.'lme verve, cruel and grave,
joyously and tragically, in the cipher of his name, •. I.D.D.£.I.-, a name that on "The Purloined Letter," concerning proper names and place-names, in
had become common enough (as noun) for others, including myself, to his marvelous text of 1980, ''The'Crypt' of Edgar Poe," a crypt he compares
have found literally, and I mean down ro the very letter, in their own to the center of the pyramid in Melville's Pi~1T<!'; or, Th<!' Ambiguities ("By
JXltronyms, something essential to share: a sort of irresistible competition vast pains we mine into the pyramid; by horrible gropings we come to
in the race to death. I remember well certain pages in "Poem and City: The the central room; with joy we espy the sarcophagus; but we lift the lid-
Sarcophabous o[Time," For example, to introduce a Williams citation, Joe and no body is thcrel-"). This pyramid or this cenotaph, is it not also
wrote the following, which announced what he would later entitle "The a "memorial"-and lhis place here, whose emptiness today sucks us in
Hermeneutical Self-Notes Toward an 'American' Practice" (boundary :2 rather than our breathing it?
(t9S4]): "The world isa 'riddle' for the Puritan, a riddleonlypartlydecoded Thus, at our first meeting, several years huer, I had already read
by an original Word or Text, the Bible. Even man in a state of grace is much of him; we had in advance gone a long way together, literally, by
condemned to interpret:ation. Characteristically, Williams concludes the letters, without meeting each other; we were ahead of ourselves and had
Mathe.r section with the following remark: 'Unriddle these Things.· ..2 already done much racing together; a strange familiarity already brought
Since we are spea king ofthe survivaJ ofthe nam~, which in announc- us closer, something [ loved right away and which was never contradicted
ingour death thereby effaces itself, de-nominates or de·nominate5 itselfin between us by distance, absence, modesr discretion, silence, even ignorance
the common name (or noun), carrying away in advance the person who of what our lives might be ljke on the other side, that other side of our
bears it properly-Unriddling lhese Things reminds me also of something lives, the most invisible and most exposed, the most dangerous part of our
Joe described elsewhere, and what I would call a certain unnaming tfftcl respective races. As if we: didn't know, as if we knew without knowing,
of nomination itself. In this Joe saw quite simply the privilege of poetry. and most enigmatically, as though we didn't need La know what we didn't
I will say that what is involved here, once agaill, is patronymics. In "Juda know about each other. As if we knew (00 much to need to know any
Becomes New Haven," in 1980, concerning Th<!' Auroras of Al4lumn by more-and this is why the enigma will never be separated from the sie\'e
Wallace Stev~ns, he wrote: "The naming t.hat erases, that Unl'Ulln~S, is [criblel, a riddle from a riddle, ifyou like, and interpretation from selection.
reserved, however, for poetry, a privileg~ it putatively claims only by As though in the acceleration of this very brief ract, we knew in advance
undermining the statUS of ephebe or 5On."J that we would never have time to see and know everything about each
Some time after having read The lnwrud Bell then, in 1975, in order other. We had to drive very fast, faster and faster.
to let him know of my admiring recognition and gratitude, 1 sent Joe Why name here the race with such insistence, why so many car races
a letter. To his Buffalo address. He wasn't there any longer, som~thing and racing cars? Because ofspeed, to be sure, and the cruelty oftime that is
I didn't yet know. Already he wasn't there any more. This letter might lacking, but also because of accidents and of death, which await us at each
curve in the road. And then also because I am obsessed by another memory
:i. I~ph Riddcl. Tk I"w;ta Brit MMt'l"f>ism iJnd ffuo C(JUnr~ia o/lVj/fitlm C1rlos
of Joe, close to my heart. It was a Reeting instant, a funive exchange of
Willit""" (J.l,a[(){l Rouge: Luuiiiana Suite UniverJlty PlUl, 1914" 157· looks, a slight incident at the end ofa California day. For years this memory
). J<JRph Riddel. -'uda Beoom« New Haven,ft DWfflIu:1 10 (iurnrnu l~r. Z90 has haunted me and I would like to share il with you. It was shortly
131 CIIAnu rlCIIT
.-----"----
after the death of Eugenio Donato, our dear and old common friend, at
whose place, moreover, we nrst met. and who cultivated a scholarly and CHAPTER 9
sophisticated taste for cars of great distinction, for those machines that arc
as nervous as racehorses, those you drive, if Im3y say so, by hand, without
automatic transmission. Less than one )'ear after Eugenio's death, Ihen, I
saw Joe again, in April of 198.., at Irvine. I had just evoked, in a lecture, MICHEL SERVIERE
the memory of Paul de Man and of Eugenio Donato, who had died a few
months apart, In leaving the university, I accompanied Joe to the parking S"'PTEM8£R 21, '94,-0CTOSf.;R 7- '991
lot and he asked me, wilh a sll1ile of complicity, pointing toward his car
and eyeing my reaction: "Take a look. What do you think of it? Does it
remind you of anything?" I immediately recognittd Eugenio's car. Joe
had done what had to be done; he had undoubtedly bought it to k~p after
the de:nh of our friend, to live in, to drive, SO that il could go on racing
until the very end-and I am certain thai at that moment, in April 1984,
there were three of liS at least, friends, who were crazy enough to love this
gesture. A gesturc, signed "Riddel," which played faithfully with life and
death as with the mystery of a shift in gears, as with the letter of a poem
on the road or in the city.
To conclude, I would like to leave or give back the word to Joe-his
words. With the awareness of sacrincing, I detach once more, hastily, mis, Miehel Servi~rt was born on Septembe:r :11,1941, at
from WPoem and City: The Sarcoph:.agus of Time" (The Inwrud &11, 158): Royat, Puy-de-D6me. His father, like his grandfalher,
was a traveling mcrchant in Ih(: neighboring mountains.
A.s Williams pUl$it in Paterson, a "riddle (in th(: Jayctan mode-
His mother, a gre:tt lover of poetry, was the nrSt to instill
... r which holds the enigma of death at its center:
in him an interest in 3esthetics and the arts. He attended
What end but lo,'(:, that slares death in Ihe eye? the Iyc& in Clermont-Ferrand, where he befriendtd Eric
Blondel 2nd took philosophy c13sstS with Jean Granier.
Sing me a song to make death toierabk,;I $Dng It was in me c1asse3 of Granier that Servi~re was nrSt
of a man ~nd a woman: the riddle of II man introduced to th(: works of Nietzsche, which were to
and a woman. have a decisive influence on his own thought and work.
After studies in Lyon and Paris. Serviere passed his
aria/ion in philosophy and began teaching in Mom-
IU~OD in 1968. He was then appointed to a position in the
French Iyc« in Tunis. He eventually returned to rranct
to teach at the lycCe of Grenoble. where he was instru-
mental in bringing togelher artists, poets, and philoso-
phers 10 di5Cuss Iheir work. These m(:ctings quickly
became indispensable to him, in terms of both the friend-
ships he formed mrough them and the influence Ihey had
on his work, which began to focus more and more on tht
relationship between philOSQphy and Ihe arts, as well as
on the visU:l1 aspeCts of writing.
'33
13.. CHAPTI'.l NINE
Serviere later joined Jean Granier as his assistant at the University AS IF THERE WERE AN ART
of Rouen. His dissertation research on Nietzsche and his interest in the OF THE SIGNATURE
stylistic forms of philosophy led him during this time to the works of
Jacques Derrida, (In '9~ Servierc contributed an article on Derrida to You can imagine how difficult it is, how hard and how painful, how much
the Encydopidie philQSophique I/niwrselle,) Servie.re evemually completed I am pained and saddened, at having to speak now in order to respond to
his dissen..ltion on Nietzsche under the direction of Roland Batthes. This Michel Servitre himself, when it is, in truth, him without him whom we
work, still unpublished, argues that Nietzsche's c:.uly writings can be read have JUSt heard,
only by following the reinscription of eristics and protreptics--subjects I want to do it, bowever; we owe it to him, and we must also do
usually excluded from the philosophical tradition-within an apparently it for him. Not to respond for him but to respond to him: to him alive
neutral discursive form. in order to keep him alive in us, there where he never stopped speaking
While ma;m~ de cart/1m/us in aesthetics at the University of Rouen, and writing, addressing us as we have just heard once again by way of
Serviere founded and directed, together with painter Denis Godefroy, a friendly voice that r«eived his own, inhabiting it or letting itself be
the art gallery Declinaisons. He organized a nUlnber of contemporary inhabited by it,
an exhibits and published collections of poetry during the late 1 970S. He The first time I heard the voice of Michel Serviere-and I had
was also involved in the preparatory work leading to the opening of the already tried at that time, with great difficulty. to respond to him-was
Onay Museum in Paris. Beginning in 1984 Serviere taught at the College just about tweney years ago, in July 1972, during a conference at Cerisy
Imernarional de Philosophie and organized and comributed to numerous on Nietzsche. At the end of a lecture that I had begun with a date, "In
n:trional tlnd imerlllltional colloquia nnd exhibits, His reAections during seventy two (T1l~ Birth o/Tragedy)," Michel asked me, on this occasion, a
the late 1980s revolved around the subject of art and the indissociable difficult question concerning, precisely, the occasion, concerning what he
relation between works and their signature. occasionally referred to that day as the "occasion."
Servieredied suddenly on October 7,199', from a cerebral tlneurism, He had used the name "occasion" to refer to a mythological figure,
Theconference he had organized under the title"Art after Philosophy. , , that of a cerUlin castration. The one in which woman does not believe-
Artand Concept," at whkh Jacques Derrida had agreed to p.1rticipate, was and of which I had just spoken, I asked him what he meant by "occasion."
held in his absence and in his memory in November of that year, He described a woman, as ifhe were seeing her in a p.1inting. He analyzed a
SOrt oftableau, a surrealist allegory, another silhouette ofpoetic inspiration,
He sketched out a figure at once threatening and threatened--{tn allegory
of death: a razor in one hand and a veil unfurling in the wind.
I was Struck without really understanding, but I still remember this
with an emotion whose intensity is easily rekindled.
I haven't stopped thinking since Michel's death about these frightful
occasions, this occasion of the occasion itself, these strange appointments
we make with death, and sometimes, as is here the case, with dead friends,
as if a cruel timepiece, more clever than us, had calculated the fall, the
accident. the case. the cadence, and the occasion, the days of misfortune
and of reckoning,such that we might find ourselves toddy. at thiS moment,
i fa morl dans tame, as we say, with death in the 5Oul, gathered together now
Tl'1IosJaleQ by P:u",le.AOIl(: Brault and Micrulf:l Na;n (Qf Ihis volume. Fim French publication,
~Comme s'il y a"ail un arl de la ,ignature: preface to U Itlfrt tic fart, by Midle! Sc:rY~re
(Paris: L'Harma\.G;n, '99]), 5-8·
136 CIlAPTlj:R N'INII M1CIlllL SllllVlhE IJ7
by Michel Serviere. by him himself, by his own hand, by the organizer, the the portrait and the sclf~portrait, which became a text of reference for me
master ofceremonies, the host and the spirit ofthis meeting, this seance, by when I myself last year ventured in that dirC1:tion-and what was at issue
him around him as 3round his absence, but in the presence of a beautiful, were tears and a certain mourning of the gaze in the art ofthe portr:lit. But
intense text, whic.h, with the refinement of kings, he was able to bring to I also admire his work on the signature <lnd, more generally, on everything
a dose before coming to an end. that comes from painting to provoke the philosopher. And Michel never
For he had signed before leaving. missed the occasion for such provocations.
And we know that a signature nOt only signs but speaks to us always We will not have spoken together enough, Michel $ervicre and
of death. l. I blame myself for having taken advantage of his discretion and for
Before anything else, even before the name, a signature bespeaks the having let certain things be said in silence, too much silence, the things of
possible death of the one who bears the name; it offers 3$SUr:lnCes of this friendship and of thought, which in the end cannot be separated.
beyond the death that it recalls just as soon, the death that is promised, But today, for him, for us, for those dose to him, for those who love
given, or received, the death thatlhus always comes before coming-M'\d and admire him, I thought it necessary to continue to speak, for the love
so, alas, comes always before its time. There where to expect it always of life, and precisely because this love is wounded. To speak to Michel
means not to be expecting it. Serviere, to hear him and to try 10 respond to him, in whatever way we
Today, I would wish 10 relate-and with the same agitation that live or interpret the strange time of this response, and whal within this
overtook me then-that enigmatic question concerning the occasion that time defies the serenity of all our representations of dle present, the past,
he asked me twenty years ago and the first words of the last letter he wrote and the future nnterior.
me at the beginning of this year. I have that letter here in front of me. It's Please be understanding, then, and forgive me for doing it all tOO
dated January 29(1991). In his bc.1utiful, elegant and flowing handwriting, poorly, with such pain and difficulty.'
he began: "The yCi'lr has begun so b3dly that I hcsitate to send you my usual
wishes for the new year."
Yes, the year had begun oodly.1 assume, without knowing for certain,
since this isalll h:lVe to goon, th3the was referring to the war(theso.-called
Gulf War) and to the dead who were then roaming about their occasion.
The year is ending badly, we know this only too well now. And the
same letter set the occasion; it prepared a place for the f::lteful so as to
::Innounce the lI11foreseellble.
Speaking of this conference and inviting me to participate in it,
Michel wrote: "You could either btlve a presentation of some sort or else
participate in an open discussion with me on the theme: 'Art, Concept,
Signature:" Yes, Ihe sign::lwre always has the knack or art of speaking
to us of death; that is its secret, it seals everything that is said with
this monumental epilaph. It gives the concept, the concepl of de-1th
and all other concepts insofar as they bear death. BUI it withdraws-as
and in the same stroke--and effaces itself from the concept. If it were
i
beaUtiful, and this sometimes happens, it would be because it witholtt
COriUpt, like a finality or ending without end. If there were an art of the
signature ...
1. The conference "rgani~ by Michel &noirre. ~Arl afler Phil<WlJlhy •.• Art and
I accepted his invilarion wholeheartedly, ofcourse, first ofall btt,1Use CQncelH; look I'laee on November 18--20, 19;91. d""ite his .udden death. Jacque.
I wished to speak with him, to hear him, to rell him once again, and Dcrrid:. Later lIgm!d to have the leXI he read on thai /)CQ$;l>n pubfi~hetI as" "refan 10
publicly, how much I admire his work. Particularly all he has done on Michel Sc:rvie.e'. Lc luirl tk r"n_Editorl not. /() Lc suiel de I'"rt.
CHAPTER 10
LOUIS MARIN
"9
Johns Hopkins Univ~rsity 2nd Columbia. He obrain~d his long-t~rm particularly the works of POlUSin and Caravaggio. Opacitl de fa peinture
position 2S dir«Uur d'ltudn in "Syst~ms of Repr~ntation-Arts and (1989) is a collection devoted to the works of Italian Renaissance painters
Language" at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in 1978. Marin rem2ined in which Marin analyzes the theory of representation and of signs in
throughout his career a regular visitor to me United StatcS, teaching at these works.
the University of California at Irvine, the State University of New York A number ofsignificanttexls have been published posthumously. Va
at Buffalo (3S Jones Professor), Cornell, Princeton, and the University poulIOin dt: l'image (1993) inte:rrogates the "being of the: image" through a
of Chicago. He became a permanent fellow of the Humanities Center re:ldingofLa Fontaine, Rousseau, Diderot,Corneille:, Shakespeare, Pase:ll,
at Johns Hopkins in 1(}83' He was also on the editorial board of many Vasari, and Nietzsche. De iJJ reprisn/Illtion. a collection of articles sel«ted
journals, including C";tiqu~. Tra~J, Glyph, Wort/and Image, and Modern from among some three hundred papers published by Marin betwccn IgOO
lAnguage Nota. and 1992, appeared in 1994. The articles chosen exemplify the wide variety
Marin's arly work was d~voted toan analysis ofthe proper name and of Marin·s interestS, ranging from topics in epistemology to aesthetics and
its r~lation to the pictorial figur~. In Th~ &miotiao/the Ptw;on NafTllt;wJ meology_ PhiliP/N de CJrampaign~ (1995) is :I major study of the work
(1971), Marin conducted a "toponymic" study of th~ Eucharist in relation of this scventeenth-century Belgian painter, situating it in rdation to
to signs and language, broaching topics such as force, narrative, and the the mcologicat and mystical texts of Augustine:, Antoine Arnauld, and
body that would be L'lken up in several subsequent works. Utopia (1973) Pascal. The book extends Marin's lifdong exploration of the Age of
continued his analysis of proper names and "the neutral" through an Representation. Though Marin was unable to write his proposed book
examination of utopic places and practices. The book revolves around a on Nicolas Poussin, the intended companion piece to his work on Philippe
close reading of Thomas More's Utopia but also includes discussions of de Champaigne, ten major essays were collected in 1995 and published
Disneyland 25 a utopic space and lannis Xenakis's writings as a poetic under tht: title Suhl;m~ POUSJin. De l'n/tretin/ (1997) is a short book of
practice of "utopia." In IA voix arommuni« (1979) Marin examines the interviews with Marin presenting his later works on art.
idea of autobiography, reading texts by Stendhal, Rousseau, and Perrault Marin paSS«! away in Paris on October 290 1992, at the age of sixty-
in an attempt to understand the paradoxes encountered when one tries to on~. He was survived by his wife:, Fran~oise Marin, and thrcc children.
write about onesdf. An homage was organized in his honor 3t the Pompidou Center in P3ris
Throughout hiscarecr Marin devoted 3. m3jor portion of his work to on January 28, 1993.
Pascal. He was the editor of Pascal's Pn/J«J (published by Didier in 1969>
and wrote the introduction to the Logico/Port-Royal (1970); his La critique
du diJa)lm (1975) is a semiotic analysis of this logic. In The Portrait ofthe
King (lgSl), M2rin pursued Pascal's insights regarding re:pre:.scntation and
powe:r in an analysis of the portrait of the: king as the real presence: of the
king. PlUCal et Port-Royal. a col.lc:ction of ~ssays writtc=n on rdated topics,
was published posthumously in 1997.
~,tarin's other great love was art, and some of his most peneu3ting
studies, such as To Demoy Painting.!Mn-Chark$ Blais. Opacitl de'" pt:in-
lure, DeJ poulJQin d~ /'image. De iJJ repranuation. Philippe: de Champaigne,
and Sublime PQtm;n, explore the relationship betw~ painting and dis-
course. Moving across an extraordinary range: ofgenres, Marin undertook
3 rigorous analysis of modern representation in rdation to such notions as
the: portrait, the pow~rs of the image, force, autobiography, memory, and
narrative. His stated aim in these: slUdies was to "transform painting intO
discourse and divert images intQ language." To Dutroy Painting (1m) is
an exploration of si:lllccnth- and seventeenth-<entury European painting,
LOUIS NAIl,IN t .. 3
By FORCE OF MOURNING even and especially when it plans to bring something to light and let it ~
seen. The work of mourning is not one kind of work among other possible
Who could ever speak orthe work of Louis Marin? kinds; an activity of the kind "work" is by no means a specific figure for
production in general.
Who wO\lld already know how to speak of the works of Louis Marin and There is thus no metalanguage for the language in which a work
of all the work that bore them, a work without measure? of mourning is at work. This is also why one should not ~ able to
say anything about the work of mourning, anything about this subject,
Work: that which makes for a work, for an ot:UVl'~, indeed that which since it cannot become a theme, only another experience of mourning that
works-and works to open: O/JUI and opening. ot:UV1-e and overture: the comes to work over the one who intends to speak. To speak of mourning
work or labor of the oetlVU insofa r as it engenders. produces, and brings or of anything else. And that is why whoc:ver thus works at the work
to light, but also labor or travail as suffering, as the enduring of fora:. as of mourning learns the impossible-and that mourning is interminable.
the p:lin of the one who gives. Of the one who gives birth, who brings to Inconsolable. Irreconcilable. Right up until death-that is what whoevcr
the light or day and givcssomething to be seen, who enables or empowers, works al mourning knows, working at mourning as both their object
who gives the force to know and to be able to see-and all these are powers and their resource, working at mourning as one would speak of a painter
of the image, the pain of what is given and of the one who rakes the pains working al a poiming but also of a machine working ar such and such all
to help us see, read, and think. ffl~rgy Ietld. the theme of work thus becoming their very force, and their
term, a principle.
Who could ever speak of all the work and works of Louis Marin? What might ~ this principle of mourning? And what was its force?
What is, what will have been, what will still ~ tomorrow, the energy of
As for this work-but what does one do when one works? Louis Marin?
Let us begin by letting him speak. Here are a few words, his words,
When one works 011 work, on the work of mourning, when one works that say something difficult to understand. They advance a truth, advance
at the work of mourning, one is already, yes, already, doing such work, toward a singular aporia that Louis Marin states or rather announces
enduring this work of mourning from the very start, letting it work precisely on the subject of "mourning. ,.
within oneself, and thus authorizing oneself to do it, according it to oneself, It says. and for the moment I cite just pan of a sentence, as ifit were
according it within oneself, and giving oneself this liberty of finitude, the all ofa sudden suspended, an interruption coming to take its breath away:
most worthy and the freest possible. "the modalities of a work of mourning of the absolute of·force.· ..'
This fragmem of a long sentence by Louis Marin names-and we
One cannot hold a discourse on the "work of mourning" without taking thus repeat it-"the modalities of a work of mourning of the absolute
part in it, without announcing or partaking in [st' fti1't' port dt'] death, and of 'force.'''
first of all in one's own death. In the announcem,mt of one's own death, Fitlt! nouns linked together, which can be read as the scanned filiation
which says, in short, "I am dead," "I died"-su~ as this book lets it be of a single genitive in the preface of his last book. And never before had I
heard--{)ne should be able to say, and I have tried to say this in the past, paid attention to the terrible ambiguity ofthis expression "the last book" of
that all work is also the work of mourning. All work in general works Louis Marin. It makes it impossible to decide between the final book and
at mourning. In and of itself. Even when it has the power to give birth, simply the most recent one, the last one to have come out. For there will ~
othen. This one will simply be me last to have come OUt, though we know
that those that will come out later witl have been complered before this
This texl is Ihe transcription ofa talk gi"en l~nuary ;18. 1993. atlhe Pompid<>u Center in Paris
during a conference honodng Louis Marin and Kknowlcdging w forthcoming publiatiOfl
of Chi pouvoirs tk rjm4~: Glmu (Paris: Swil. 1993). Reprinled. wilh ctu.ng<'s. (rom "By Fwcc
of Mourning.~ rranwlIcd by Pa$Cale-Anne Brault ..nd Mkh3d Nus. CrilkflllnquiTy :12. no. 2 I. l..oui$ Marin, Chi pmwoirs tk (if'll(lg..: G/O/I:1 (Paris: Seuil. t99;). 16-17 (berea('"r
(winte, 1996): 111"'"'9a. No Fr"nch publieacion. abbrevialed all').
UlVI5 MAIJ'" ".5
one, which will thus remain in the: cnd, and (orever, the last one. Forever. Though he leaves us with this question, at least he will have refor.
From now on the' final one. mulaled il in a n~w and singular way, indic;uing another path, another
Thc preface to Da pouvo;rJ de rimoge: GIOJeJ thus announces and way to engage or to be engagcd with it, with this proliferating thought
pronounces [flat it will address the: "modalities of a work of mourning that buzzes like a hive. (What is force-force itself, absolute force, if there
of the absolute of 'force.' The slow and cautious procession, the vigilant
W is any? Where docs it come from? How docs one rerogniu: it? How docs
theory of these complements of me noun ka",c no detcrmination cxanpt one measure it? \Vhat is the greatest force-the invulnerable force? And
from an.:alysis. If the word "force" is here in quotation marks, it is for a if this infallible force were the place of the greatcst weakness, for example,
good reason; it is because the mourning in question and the .so-callw work the place of the ~defenselessness"ofdeath, of the d~ad's ~defensdessness,"
of mourning are not self...(:vidcnt; they go btyond understanding in some of their hdplessness, of their "without force," and of the "defenselessness"
way. the)' go paSt the usual understanding of this word "force," indem. and thus the "without·force afthe survivors faced with death"? What is
they just don't quite go. It is a question, in truth. of !.he impossible iueLf. meant by "force," in quotation marks? What is thatl)
And that is why I look the risk of speaking 3. moment ago of an aporia. Le:t us look for another way to engage this aporetic question to which
You will also understand, for this is the law, the law of mourning, and there are however so many different points ofentry. They all come down to
the law of the law. always in mourning, that it .....ould have: to fail in order asking in the end what IS this thing called "force." In the quotation marks
LO succeed. In order to succ~d, it would well have toftil. to faa well. It that suspend even the assurance of a term of reference, the question would
would well have to fail, for this is what has to be so, in failing well. That seem to mark out a strange path. Which one? Force itself-by preceding
is what would have to Ix. And while it is always promised, it will never and thus violating in adv:lnce, in some sensc, the possibility of (1 question
be assured. concerning it-force itself would trouble. disturb, dislocate the "cry form
In the era of psychoanalysis, we all of course speak, and we can of the question "what is?" the imperturbabl~ "what is?" tbe authority of
always go on speaking, about the "successful" work of mourning---or, what is called the ontological question.
inversely. as if it were precisely the contrary, about a "melancholia" that For the powers of the image lead back perhaps in the last resort to
would signal the failure of such work. But if we are to follow Louis this power, to the force of an image that must be protected from every
Marin, here: comes a work without force, a .....ork that would have to work ontology. It would have to be protected from such ontologies because it
at renouncing force, its own force, a work that would have to work at itself, in uuth, protects itsclffrom them; il begins, and this is precisely the
failure, and thus at mourning and getting ovu forcc, a work working at force of its force, by tearing itselfaway from an ontological tradition of the
its own unproduetivity, absolutdy, working to absolve or to absolve itself question "what is?"' Marin recalls already in the introduction to his book
of whatever might be absolute about "force," and thus of something like that this tradition iudftended to consider the image as a lesser being, thai
"force" itself: -a work of mourning of the absolute of'force,''' says Louis is, as a being withoul power, or as a weaker and inferior being, a being
Marin, k~ping the word "force" betw~n quolation marks that JUSt won't of little power, of little force. To submit the image to the question Mwhat
let go. It is a question of the absolute renuOll-nion of th(': absolute of force, is?" would thus already be to miss the image and its force, the image in
of the absolute offorce in its impossibility an~ unavoidability; both at once. its forc~, which has to do perhaps not with what it is or is nOl, with the
as inaccessible as it is inelucrable. fact that it is not or docs not have much being, but with the fact that its
logic or rather iu dynamic, its dYfUlmis. the dynasty of its force, will not
What then is force. absolutely? But also: what is Ihis "without force," this submit to an onta.logic: its d)·nama.logic would no longer be, would have
state of being drained, without any force, where death. where the death never been, a logic of being, an ontology. Or rather, to come at it from the
of a friend, leaves us, when we also have to work at mourning force? Is other direction, which actulllly makes more $Cnsc:: the ontological order
the "without force," the mourning of force, possible? In the end this is the (that is, philosophy) would have been constituted as such for not knowing
question Marin leaves us. It is with this question that he leaves us, like rich the powers of the image:for not knowing or denying them, in the double
and powerless heirs, that is, both provided for and at a loss. given over to sense of this "for," thai is, beams~ it did not take them into account, bm
being forlorn and distraught, full of and fortified by him, responsible and also/or mislaking them. with a view fQ doing so, so as to oppose them, in
voiceless. this most veiled and clandestine war, to the unavowed counterpower of
WlllI JoI ..... IN 141
a denial intendo:l to .assure an ontologial power oVO' the image, over the "The being of the image. in a word, would be ilS force: but how are we
power of the image, over its dynomu. to think this 'force'?" and when he once again puts the word force into
Dyrwmu: the word .Kems indis~nS3ble. If I emphasize it so force~ quotation marks--this would 3mount to substituting force: for being. But
fully, while Louis Marin uses it only once in his preface as an apposition the logic of this substitution-and this is the reason for the conditional
to the words "force" and "virtue," virru ("the force in the image and of {"woufJ 1M its force")-itself c:.lIs for the quotation marks. For tnu force
the image, the lIinu. the virtue, the dynamu that 'propels' it to vision" owes it to ;mf[ nos to 1M. It owes it to itself not to be a being. It must thus
(P. 181>, it is because this concept plays, it sec:ms to me, a decisive role as now be on intimate terms with what is not force, with its opposite, with the
soon as it is protected or withdrawn from the traditional ontology that "without.force," a domestic and paradoxically necessary commerce being
generally dominates it. We will later Stt th:n this dynamu here links in a established between them. The greatest force is to be SttR in the infinite
most original way both the ideas it has always .associ3ted-namely, force, renunciation afforce, in the absolute interruption offorce by the without~
power, and lIirtu-and the ideas of the possible or the virtual as SIKh, th'lt force. Death, or rather mourning, the mourning of the absolute of force:
is to say, a virtual that has no vocation to go into action, or rather, whose that is the name, or one of the names, of this affect that unites force to the
going into action or whose enactment does nOt destroy its virtual power. without.force, thereby relating the manifestation of force, as image, to the
With what docs this have to do (if one can say this, since the logic of being without force of that which it manifests or lets be seen, right before
the act and of acting, ofdoing, is precisely what is at stake here)? It would our very eyes and according to our mourning.
have to do with a possible that is in potential of being only on the condition For what appears most striking from the very opening of this last
of remaining possible as possible, and of marking within itsdf--{he scar of book, Dn /'OIIVO;rs d~ l'imag~, is that it brings about in an irresistible way
a wound 3nd the potentialization of force--{he interruption of this going a double conversion, I dare not say a double reversal. There is first of
into action, this enactment, an absolute interruption that bears no other all the turn or move by which Marin protects the question of the image
seal here than th3t of death: whence a thought of the virtuaf wor-t one from the authority of ontology, and this is already a question offorce and
might also say of a virtual space, of an opus. an opusop«atum, thaI would of power. Then there is the other turn or move whereby this first move
accomplish the possible as stich without effacing it or even enacting it in finds its truth or its law in-if we an now pur it in a nODontological
rC3Jity. The thought of a spectral power of the virtual work. One that way-what I would be: tempted to call, using a code that would have
envelops or develops within itselfa thought ofdeath. Only death, which is precisely nothing Heideggerian about it, the being~loward.-death of the
nOl, or r:nher mourning, which takes its place in advance, eaD open up this imag~. Or, let us say to avoid ambiguity, the bring~to-death of an image
space ofabsolutedynamu: force. virtue, the possible as such, without which that Itas the force, that is nothing osller than the force, to r~ut. so comisl.
one understands nothing ofthe power of the image. And this "understands and to aut in death, precisely there where it docs not insist in being or
nothing," this ontological denial, would be nothing other than philosophy in the presence: of being. ThislNing.to-death would oblige us to think the
itself, which thus can not he considered to be one conjuring practice among image not as the weakened reproduction of what it would imita(, not as
others. For trying to reduce, weaken, and wear out a power ofthe image.50 .a mimbne. a simple image, idol, or icon, at least as they art: conventionally
as to subjecl it to itself, this philosophica.l exorcism of such powerful scope understood (for it is a question of moving away from this convention), but
would-and this would be my hypothesis--in some way regartl death. as the increase of power, the origin, in truth, of authority. the image itself
It would regard that which should not beSttJl, and so denied, namely becoming the author, the author and the augmentation of the aunoritas
death. Thisdandestine war ofdenial would thus be waged in the shadows, insofar as it finds its paradigm, which is also its marge;a, in the image of
in that twilight space of what is called mourning: the mourning that the dead.
follows death but also the mourning that is prepared and that we expect In other words, we would not haveimage.s. a typologyofimagt'samong
from the very beginning to follow upon the death of those we love. Love which a particular class representing thedead or death might be. identified.
or friendship would be nothing other than the passion, the endurance, and For it would be. from death. from what might be called the poins ofview
the pati~nce of this work. ofdeath. or more precisely, of the dead, the dead man or woman, or ~ore
Whence this paradox: when Marin pUlS a question mark after the precisely still. from (he point of \'iew of the fac~ of the dead in their
being of the image ("The being of the imager' IP, 101) and later answers: portraiture, that an image would give seeing. that is, not only would give
LOUI$ M ....IN 1<19
im:1[ to be seen but would give insofar as it sees, as if it were sedng as no longer present and comes to be rt~·prescnted, and when he then takes
much as seen. the example of the disappearance of the present as death, it is in order not
A displacement of the point of view, therefore, which quite obviously only to track a re-pre5Cntation or an absolute substitution of representation
inscribes all the essays of this book into the ongoing tradition of work for presence, but also to det«t within it an increase, a re·gaining of force
undertaken by Marin for many years concerning that which founds or a supplement of intensity in presence, and thus a son of potency or
the foundation and institutes the institution of power in a certain logic potentialization of power for which the schema of substitutive value, of
of representation. And this work, as wc all know, allowed him in the mere replacement, can give no account. Representation is here no longer
course of so many innovative, fertile, and brilliant analyses to articulate a a simple reproductive re·presentation; it is such a regaining of presence,
thought of the theologico-political and a certain icono-semiological theory sucb a r«rud«cence or resurgence of presence thereby intensified, that it
of representation. allows lack to be thought, the default of presence or the mournjng that
Yet it seems to me (and this is a reading hypothesis that regards, if had hollowed out in advance the so-called primitive or originary presence,
I may say thi.s, only me, and indicates only a moment of my mournful the presence that is represented, the so-called living presence.
reading) that in these important developments of earlier research an Hcre, in a word, is the question of the image. the image put into
inflection or break comes to inscribe a paradox. This paradox complicates qUC$tion, not the question "What is the image?" but "image?"' Let us read
and in turn illuminates, it seems tome, thec.arlier trajectory. It concerns the Marin (P. II):
mourning of force or the force of mourning, th:n is to say, a law according
to which the greatest force does not consist in continually expanding ad 1'h<: prell,; ",brings into this term the ulue ofsubstitution. Some-
infinitum but develops its maximal intensity, so to speak, only at the mad thing that was present and is no longer islJOW represented. In
moment of d«ision, 211 the point of its absolute interruption, there where place of something that is present ~1KwJ.n-r. there is here a present.
dynamiJ remains virtuality, namdy, a virtual work as such. A moment of
infinite renunci:nion as the potcntialization of the virtual work. But Ihe
virtual work is not one category of work or image among others; it is
a girJr1J.
,
I emphasize "elsewhere" here, though we are going to.see in a moment that
the essc.nce of the work, a nonessential essena, since it is an essence that the radical example of death makes of this "elsewhere," which refers to a
remains possible as such. And this is death (or at least that's what this word Gospel, the metonymy of a possible "nowhere," or at least of an elsewhere
here signifies-and there where there is no death in itsdf that would ever without locality, without a home in presentable space, in the given space
be possible as such there is only the experience ofmourning without death: of presentation.
mourning is the phenomenon of death and it is the only phenomenon
behind which there is noming; the phaincsrhai of this phenomenon is the ... there is here a present, a giwn: image?
only possible access 10 an original thought of the image, and so on). Here
is death, then, there where the image annuls its representative presence, This single·word question-"image?,,-is going to come up more than
there where, more pr«isely, the non·rc·productive intensity of the re· of once. But is it really a question of an image? Can onc still speak of an
representation gains in power what the present that it represents \O$¢s in image when representation seems [0 do more than represent, when it
presence. And this point, which also punctuates an entire way of thinking actually gains in intensity and force, when it .seems to have even more
the temporalization of time, is evidently the point, not of death itself, but power than that of which it is said to be the image or the imitation?
of mourning, llnd of the mourning of me absolute of force. Marin's response will necessarily be double, no and yes: no, it is not simply
If, therefore, the first examples Marin proposes in order to make this an image if we are to accept the ontological concept of the image as the
power ofthe image visible and energetic, in order toillwrrate it, are in1agcs mimetic and weakened double of the thing itself; yt!S, for it is the very
of the dead, one should notste here a simply fortuitous occurrence. II is in essence, the proper power, the dynamis of the image, if one thinks tly:
the re.pre5Cntation of the dead that the power of the image is exemplary. image on the basis of death, that is, in truth, on the basis of the mourning
Whcn Marin asks about this rt:· of rcpresentation, about thc substitutive that will confer upon it its power and an increase in intensive force. Let us
value that this rt:- indicates at the moment when that which was present is continue this reading.
LOUIS MAIl,.. 1~51
... image? I osteOId of reprcscm~aion,then. there is an absenee in transfiguration that will be treated so magnificently in gloss 8 ofthc book,
time or sp.1ce. or rather an other. to which I will return in a mome::nt; this force would here stem from the
semiotic heterogeneity, from the power of language, and from the power
The replacemem of "absencc" by "other" here no doubt indicates that the of aherity that works over the being-to-death of every i.mage.
substitutive value is no longer 0JXrati\'e in the couple "abKnc~pre~nce"
but in the couple "sam~othc:.r"thatintroduces the dimension ofmourning. Between dead cadaver (a strange redundancy, ~dead cadaver,"
which leaves no chance for illusion or hallucination I and enun<;iatw
... an other, and a substitution takes place from an other 10 this meuage, the enunciation 50 pow~iful ofiby an absence (PUUs4n1t'
other, in its place:. Thw, in this primitive (or originary) scene of d'UM dSO'lCt'1--
the Christian West, lhe angel at the tomb on the morning of the I emphasize "powerful," the key word in this expression "the enunciation
Resurrection-"he is nOl. here, he is e~where, in Galilee., as he so powerful oflby an absen«," bttause the adjective ~powerful" matters
had uid~_whKh substilules a meuage for Ihis thing, for this more than both the subject, "enunciation," and the complement of the
dead body and iu inertia, which makes appc<lf the ~force" [again in
quocarion marks, and we will later sec why) of an unuance whose
noun, "oflby an a~cc.~
-and it is in this that its pragmatic and hislorical force resides, its
,.
contCOt is, nonetheless, limiled 10 remarking upon an absence, "he
is not here ... ,~ the absence of the ~same~ in the hetcrogeneity of foundational e.ffic;llcity-the absoence of the founding body.
another semiotic poccntial, language. The logic of these propositions is dictated by a thought of the foundation
Lei us pause for a moment at this allusion to ..the heterogeneity of itselfas the powcr ofthe image: the body is not 6lS( founding and then, once
another semiotic potential, language" in the presemation of the imag('. It dead orabsenr, confirmed in its founding power. No, this power comes toit
explains and justi6es in advance the vc:.ry form of Marin's book, namdy, from the imaginal trans6guration. This founding power advcnes thanks to
the n('cessity of a textual weaving of words and images, the imbrication and as the result of the imaginal trans6guration. The foundation is first of
of glosses .sewn upon the iconic tissue: glosses upon glosses that are, in all imaginal; it is from the "ery start fantastic or phantasmic: under certain
truth, JUSt as originary :u the image, as an image that language will have conditions. of course, and this is the central problem of the:: pragmatic
made possible, and glossc:.s of glOSSoeS that we here can only gloss in turn, conditions of such efficacity; all of history is at issue here, and, first of all,
on one side or the other of the image. Marin immediatdy goes on to repeat the enigma of all the examples taken in such an exemplary way, that is, at
this question in a word ("imagt:?"). He links it this time to the theme of once invariant and (yet) indifferent., oJXn to variation, from the Gospels.
resurrection and transfiguration: In any case, it will be said that this founding power of the image or of
the porttait (of th(' king, for example), with all the political dimensions
Here-4ook here, listen here--in place of a udaver, removed from
that Marin never ceased to analyze, did not CJl:isl before death. This
the agency of signification, from the ritual gdwrality of the funeral
power comes to it from this imaginal representation, from "the exchange
unction. a mCisage: this exchange: between the c:adaver and lan-
between the cadaver and language," from the "ontologicaJ transfiguration
guage, the gap of this exchange, is precisely the resurrection of the of the body."
body, and the travcrsing of this gap, the ontological transfiguflltion
But what might this mcan? Why did the founding power of the
of the body: image?
image not exist before de.nh? What might it mean in gc:.nc:.ral for some·
The question is repetlted: "image?" This e.Iliptical question without verb thing not to exist before death, when the antieipa.tion of death comes so
or copula suggests that the image is more than an image, stronger or indisputably to hollow out the living present that precedes it, and when
more forceful than the image defined and weakened by ontology. The:: mourning is at work, as we know, before death?
same ellipsis also lets something else be thought: outside the evangelical, It means perhaps that the power of the image as the power 'Of
doctrinal, or dogmatic space:: ofthe:: Resurrcction, before ii, more originary death does not wait for death, but is m::trked out in everything-and
than it, but in an origin:trily of which Christianity makcs an event, there for everything-that awaiLS death: the dealh of the king geLS its efficacity
would be the very possibility, the power, the force: of resurrection and of from the: portrait made before the death of the king, and every image
IS:] (;UAPTIHI; TIiN
I..QUU MAlUN '.53
enacts its efficacity only by signifying the de;uh from which it draws all iu to disappear in death, to nct as the one who has disappeared or passc:d
power. away. All these are problems or dimensions of the foundation. and first of
It is this ("t:he absence of the founding body") that will constantly all of the political foundation_in and through represenution-rhat, as
require throughout the ages that the body be coven::d over, buried, such, never intercsted Heidegger, if I am not mistaken, at least not in The
and in a way monumCllt:llizcd by and in its representations. Such Prim:ipk ofReason, which is also. however, a meditation upon thtH which
would be the fiut effect of representation in g.:nerol. happens to representation, and through representation, in the seveoteemh
century.
I emphasize "in general." Such generalhy affeeu the Christian example
with the sign of a possible imaginary variation, as if the privilege of Such would be the "primitive" of representation as effcct: to pre-
Chrislian culture were, in a sort of phenomenological eidetic reduction, sentify, to make Ihe abseil( prc:selll, as if that which returned were
the nme.
but the imaginary basis for an intuition of a general essence conctrning
the n:llureof represent.uion or imagination in general, beyond the Christie There is here, then, an acute thought of mourning an<fof the phantom
space. When Marin here names the "first effcct," he is not pointing out a that returns, of haunting and spectrality: beyond the alternative berw~n
simple consequence, something that would follow upon the operation of presence and absence, beyond neg-.uive or positive perception even, the
the im:lge: interested, as always-as the great Pascalian that he was-in effect of the image would stem from the fantastic force of the specter, and
the logic of the effect, in the reason of effects, he knows that the image from a supplement offorce; and t.he increase becomes fantastic at the very
is nothing, that it does not exist before or ouuide the effect, the word heanofla.ck, for Marin immediately raises the stakes, capitalizes thesmkes
"effect" designating at once the change brought about and that which with regard to a capital surplus value of the image, with regard, in sum,
has an 4ftet, namely, the energy of the aspect, of the manifesution, of to the ;fIt~m of the image and the desire for the image:
visibility, of phaillcstlwi. The reason of efTecu thus comes not so much
Such would be the ~primilive" of represenlation as effect: to pre-
from the principle of reason or causality as from the fact that it reveals
.sentify. [0 make the absenr prCSCIll, as if tlut which relurned were
the power of representation, an essence of representation that effectuates
rhe same and sometimes bencr,ffl(,Jrc intense. more forceful than if it
more than its so-called ontological essence. If I gloss things in my own
were the same. (My emphasis)
way, all the while trying not to be unfaithful to Mann's intention, if
I oppose the "reason of effects," which Marin does not invoke directly The ~more" hereseemsaffecred by lin "liS if" ("as ifit were the same"),
here, to the "principle of reason" and, implicitly, to the interpretation of but the more intensity or force, far from being lessened or attenuated by
it given by I-Ieidegger, whom Marin, it seems to me, if I am oot spenking the fiction of the "as if," draws from it. on the contrllry, all its dYl1omis. at
too hastily here, never evokes in this work (except indirectly, in a notc once its power 'Illd its increase of potential being, of being in pot.ential.
concerning a reference by Panofsky to Heidegger 1P. ;W5]), it is to try to There is also here, I would be tempted to say, a theory of the capital and
make sense of the underlying reason for this silence and to try implic.itly of the capitalization of energy, t.here where capit.'ll is represented from its
or obliquely to justify it, assuming that a silence can ever be justified. heraldic: depths [abim.:o), both in the chief or hea.d (of stat.e, for example)
For Heidegger always associates the predominance and the closure of a and in the capital portrait. For this is also a book on the decapitMion of
eertain accentuation of the Principle of reason (that is, of the Sot:: 110m the king (look at entreglose 8 entitled "The Severed Head" on Corneille's
Crulld as principle of Clusality or of final causality. the Grund or the Death of Pompey) and on the fate of this form of capital punishment that
foundation here being the cause), especially since the seventeenth century, turns regicide into an event whose possibility is inscribed righl on the effect
with a certain authority of representation. In so doing he perhaps misses called "portrait of the king."
OUi on underst..nding how the amhority or power. and particularly the To reinforce this demonst.ration of force and of what links ~wer
theologico~politjcal power of represent:ltion, even if aesthetic, might come to death, Marin goes on to cite an extraordinary text by Alberti. In book
to it, in its very founding agency, precisely from its lack or absence ofGrund. I I of his treatise all Pa;nring. Alberti speaks of death and of friendship.
from the Abgrund on the b..sis of which it founds: for it founds precisely I could not help but recall a certain moment during a seminar we taught
there where the founding body, the founding agency or existence, comes together three years ago when we asked about what links friendship to
UH,IIS M .... l~ IS5
the lestamentary experience, particularly in a c("rtain text of Montaig~,of This logic presuppG§CS that .a sort of de.ath of the king comes in
whom Marin was also a marvelous reader. Whal does Alberti say here? If aJlJQnc~ to divide the king's body in two: the individual or real body on
paiming has within itself a force that is absolulely divine (vim di,,;nam) it the: ont hand: the fictive--ideal or reprcscntat..iv~yof dignity on
is be<:au~ it makes the absent present:"as friendship is said to do," Alberti the: other. (The politico-juridical history of the two bodies of the king in
then adds, thinking perhaps of:l certain text of Aristotle, the very one Christian Europe, such as it is analyzed by Ernst Kantorowicz, plays an
that Momaigne e\'okes and that we had discussed in this seminar.' Alberti organizing role in these texts of Marin; it runs through them, as we know,
then moves on-right to the limit of death. Dcath is not one example as the continuous thre<ld of an axiomatic-so indispcns..1hle an"obvious
of absence among others; it speaks to us of absence iuclf by naming the that Kantorowicz hardly h:as to be mentioned.) ow, as we know, this
most absent of absences, the one that is given by de:llh. Henceforth death, dividing or this redoubling of the king's body, this funcliolUl death of
which is exprcssm, in sum. by all the other absences as absences, is what the physical body in the body of dignity, what Marin elsewhere calls the
gives painting its greatest force, for "divine force" also means "the greatest "'caesura of the royal body,-4 could be wriuen into the rights of absolute
force." But because it bears death, so to speak, this greatest force is also the and hereditary monarchy only on the: basis of a Christian doctrine. I'll
"without-foree," the mourning ofthe absolute of"force... For to suggest, as cite:: just one scntence, at the end of gloss 6 ("The Portrait of the King,
I ha\'e jU51done, that "divineforce" means "the greatest force" is not simply Shipwrecked), which would hc.re have to be read extremely closely: "The
to call divine that which is the greatest, lhat in relation 10 which nothing king in his portrait, the king as image, the ki.ng~represcntation, is thus in
greater can be thought, as St. Anselm would say, or to think it according the 'parable' a p.1rody of the eucharistic mystery of the mystic body and of
to a schema of ordinary meaning that would unile the idea of God to the real presencc" (p. 194).
superlative; it is also to approach the divinity of the divine on the oosis of One could readily show, in fact, that this logic remains at work
death, or rather as the mourning-bearing power that makes the greatest wherever there is a monarchy in a Christian country, even in :a Christian
force equal to the without-force, to the mourning ofthe absoluteof"force." dcmocracy, I mean in a democratic regime with a Christian culture, as
Under thcs(: conditions, the: schemas of the: eucharistic transubstantiation, soon as the unity or the independence of the nation-st::ue is represcnted in
of the tran:diguration or the resurrection, even iftakcn outside the context the body ofa monarch or president, no mattc=.r what the length ofthe term
of pure Christian dogmatism, retain an exemplar)' value for Marin's works, or the forms of inheritance by election (filiation or succession), indeed, no
in the most enigmatic scnsc ofthis Christian exemplarity. This exemplarity m:a(ler what the mode of election.
docs nO( suggest one occurrence among othNS but the occurrence of But let's return to Alberti: "Painting," he writes, "contains an abso-
the unique and irreplaceable: historiC<:l1 advent that allows one to give lutely divine force Lin se /Jim admooum di/Jinom habtotJ that not only makes
an account ofall the effects of the:: "portrait of the king." By allowing them absent men present, as friendship is s..'Lid to do, but shows the de.1d to
to take place, by giving them their prOper place, it detc=.rmina Marin's so the living $0 that e\·en "fter m:any centuries rtkfuncrus long poil JOuula
necessary and so rigorous analyses on this subject-lx it in the book that viwnlibu.r nlli/xatJ they may be recognized by them with gre:at pleasure
hears this title (Portrait ofthe King)3 or in the scoond part of this last book, and withgrcatadmiration for the painter" (quoted inP. II). In Albcrti'sde-
"The Genealogical and Political Powers of the Image." scription we sec: pleasure and admir.ation becoming inextricably linked to
What do all these analyses, each one emanating beauty and truth, mourning, the force: of the thrteafTecu increasing from their combination.
show? To put it all too poorly in a word, they demonstr:ate and display Yel it is necessary hc=.re to underscore an obvious faCl.1t could easily
wh:u, in the coursc of history, :allows one to say, following Pascal, that "the be forgotten bei:ause it is so obvious, like the nose in the middle of one's
portrait of the king is the king" and that it is the "'portrait dfect,' the face. It is that the image and representation are treated by Alberti-and
mimetic effect, the effect of represe.nt:llion, that makes the king" (P, 187)· by Marin citing Albcrti-on th~ basis oj the portrait. The portrait is not
JUSt any painting. It lhus has to be: recalled why it is the history of the
image as por/roit th:at must be investigated in order to analyze" power,
).. r.- &tt»Ii Albcm, Ow hi,ln"" U<lM.lohn R. ~r (New H,ncn: Y<lk Univc:n:ry
particularly the thcologico-political power of represe.ntation. The porU'3it
Preu., I~ 6j.
s- Louu M;ann, P_1l c{ W ~",. InnS. M.. niu M. Houk (MinlX:llpolis; U.uvcRllJ'
~ Mmna"... Pl"Ulo, .985>-
LOCIS MHIN 157
is not one fiction or figure, Olle face of the figure, among others. Not only as we say, has disappeared or "passed away," the photogrnph, like the
because it representS at ona the gaze that gazes at us and the head that portrait. having Ihe virtue of making appear the one who has disappeared,
governs the body and the chief or head who governs the social body. (In of making them reappear with greater clarity or Nlorgt'ia. Before citing
his political analyses Marx is always interested just as much in the head Alberti, Marin acu as if he wcre giving an example merely in passing, a
of those who govern as in the logic of capita!.) But espttially because, like few words of pedagogic illustration: "Thus the photograph of someone
the photographic portrait. itS relation to the referent appears (and it is who has p3ssc:d away displayed on the manlel" (P, 1 I).
this appearance that counts e\'e:n ifone must not trust it) irreducible, This I am going to ha\'C': to brtak this off. for there is not enough time;
fiction of the figure, of the: face. is given as essentially nonficti\'e, and it but before saying in a few words in what direction I would ha\'e liked to
claims to gi\'e us-and Barthcs relied a good deal, perhaps a bit too much, share with you the reading of this great book, I would especially like 10
on this claim-what once was and could not not ha\'e been present before convey to you, trying not to take advantage of the emotion, how difficult
the gau: or before the lens. What the portrait 53YS, the rit!t' "portrait" (and and p3inful it is for me to speak here of this book. This difficulty or pain
it is because a title is of the order of discourse th:H we arc here in a gloss), has nothing to do with the time we door do not have this evening; we and,
is that Wh:ll is shown, portraitured, is wh:lt was (supposed to have be<:n) alas, we alone, will later have more timc. A bit more timc.
real, really present. This is obviously not the case of every other pictorial Such difficulryor p.1in has to do with the strange time of reading that
figure or fiction, which do not then strictly speaking deserve the name of the time of the writing of this book will have, as if in ad\'ance, imprinted
representation, or even, in the end, thaI of image, The portrait is here the in us, the friends of Louis.
capital representation insofar as it represents the capital dement in 3 power I imagine him writing these lines. ciling and glossing Alberti in his
of the image. Forcing things onl)' a bit, one could say that,ot /Msr from the preface not long before his dC3th, working on :1 book he knew he might
point of view of the theologico·political power guaranteed by the portrait not 5«, thai is, might not, while still living, 5« cOllle out. The book,:1$)'Ou
of the king. and based on Marin's analysis, Ihere is no difference between will see, multiplies these analyses, these examples. these images of what I
painting and photogral)hy. for the photographic portrait continues to would call the survival dTcct, the effect of living on. Louis nOI only saw
guarantee, and sometimes even accentuates, the function of the painted death coming, as we all SCC! it coming without seeing it, 3S we all expect il
portrait. The photographic lechnique fulfills evcn more powerfully the withoul expecting it. He approached death, which approached him, more
pictorial mcnion, namely, to 5C1ZC the dead and tt:.'lnsfigure them-to and more quickly; he approached it in preceding II, and anticipaled it with
resuscitate as having b«n the one who (singularly, he or she) will ha\'e Ihese images and glosses, for which the grammar of the future anlerior
bc:c:n. The presidential portraitS thai can Ixs«.n today in all places ofpublic no doubt does not suffice to COIl\'ey their force and time, their tense:. The
authority (government agencies, tOwn halls, dcpartmenul and municipal future anterior is still 3 simplistic modaJiz3tion of a fundamental presenl
buildings, police stations) express the origin, identity, and place of the or representation; simplistic bccauSC' still too simple to be: ablc to trlllnsiale
capital gathering oflegitimate power insofar as it holds us in its gaze llInd the strange temlx)fality that here gives its force 10 the mourning affecl
looks at us looking at it by recalling us to what looks at and regards us, of which we are speaking. It would likewise be too simple, though true
that is, to our responsibility before it and in its eyes. It is also true that in an oblique way, 10 53Y Ihat Louis M3rin, citing Alberti and speaking
pholography 3t the same rime goes against the very vocation it fulfills of the (XIrtrail of others, of death and of friendship, p:linted himself in
or continues since it makes Ihe portrait available to everyone. Through advance. p.1inting at the same time his grieving friends, pointing us OUlIO
this technical democralization, photography tends to demoy the aura and ourselves in advance with a finger, 3nd signing the extraordinary utterance,
r:lrity of painting thal restrici the commissioning of the painled portrait, which he comments upon elsewhere. that allows one to say "I died" (this
which sometimes tumsout to bea masterpiece, tocertain privileged places, incredible grammar, this impossible time or tense that he analyzes in LA
of whic.h the court is:u the very least the metonymic figure, In any case, voix ~xcommu1/;tt').'
one should nOI be surprised to sec Marin, JUSt after having spoken of what To sa)' "1 died," "I am dead." is not simply a future anteri6r. It is
is "mosl intense" and "most forceful" about the effect of representation, the strange time of his writing, the strange lime of reading that looks
and just before citing Alberti, make reference in a single sentence to
pholography. and more precisdy to the photograph of someone who,
ISS CHAPTU TllN LOUIS MAliN '59-."
at and regards us in advanc~ this ~vening, that will have regarded us, commonly used to characterize mourning is that of an interiorizalion (:lll
that will regard us long after us. The .. , died- is not a phenomenologico- idealizing incorporation, introjection, consumption of the other, in effect,
grammatical monstrosity, a .scandal of common sense or an impossible an aperience that would have received one of its (;$$ential aspttts from
sentence with no meaning. II is the time or tense, the graphological time, the Eucharist. which was, for Louis, the great Thing, the great mouming-
the implicit tempo of all writing, all painting, of every tra«, and even object, both his object and the object ofhis mourning, to which he will ha\te
of the pn:sumed present of e\'ery rogito "EO mm, (For this phrase, as I devoted a work so original and all.-eonsuming, a work that relentlessly
tried to show a long rime ago elsewhere, necessarily implies an '" am pursues the eucharistic body from every side--cxegetical, philosophical,
dead." 'n Descartes onc cannot sep.uate these words and the system of historical,logical, Iinguistic--as if it were necessary before dying to come
th~ir enunciation from what is considered to be one of Descanes's minor to know what mourning is, to know how to cOllle to terms with death,
discourses, namely, what he says of the Eucharisl when he dares, more and how to transfigure the work of death iowa work that gives and
or less clandestinely, to enter into the deb.1te among theologians on this givc.s something to be 5«n), Now, if the modes of interiorization or
subject. I later tried to show this again in a seminar where I referred, of of subjectification that psychoonalysis talks about are in some respects
course, to the works of Marin on the Eucharist and added to them this undcniable in the work of mourning where the death of the fricnd Icaves
Cartesian gloss.) us, that is, leaves us alone, I told myselfthe following, which iscert3inly not
During the past few w«ks slXnt admiring Da potivoiT$ d~ ('image I original but .....hich' fed with a singular acutenessand,indecd,an increased
kept saying to mysdfthat I have ne\'er known such an emotion in reading intensity: ifthis interiorization is nOf. possible, ifit musl not--and this is the
a book. It was not only the emotion of mourning that we all know and unbearable paradox: of fiddity-be possible and completcd, it would not
recognize, even if it hits us each time in a new and singular way, like be beause of a limit, because of a border th,at cannOt be crossed, because
the end of the world, an emotion that overwhelms us each time we come of a frontier that comes to enclose a givcn space, organizing finitude into
across the surviving testimonies of the lost friend. across all the "images" an inside and an outside Ihat would be, in dT«t, homogeneous with one
that the one who has "p3ssed away" has left or passed on to us. another, symmetrical and commensurable on each side of an indivisible
There W3S, this time,something more, somethingdse as well. There line. It would be, rather, because of allmher organization of space and of
was another emotion that came to overwhelm this first mourning, this visibiljty, of the gazing and the gazed upon. Whatever the tfUth, alas, of
common mourning, coming to make it turn upon itself, , would almost this inevitable interiorization (the friend can no longer be but in us, and
want to say to reflect it to the point of vertigo, another emotion, another whatever we may believe about the afterlife, about Iiving.-on, according
quality and intensity ofemotion, at once tOO painful and strangely peaceful, to all the possible forms of faith, it is in us that these movements might
which had to do, I believe, with a certain time of reading. appear), this being·in-us fC\'eals a truth 10 and at d~/lI. at the moment of
\Vithout even trying to say something more, however minimal, about death, and even before death, by everything in us that prepares itself for
this magnificent book and about the strange time: of reading by which I and awaiu death, that is, in the undeniable anticipatton of mourning that
was overwhelmed, I would like to \'enrore a few words on the subject constitutes friendship. It reveals the truth of iu topology and lropology.
of mourning, and on the tim!: of an interminable mourning, so as not to When we say Min us," when we speak so easily and so painfully of inside
rush ahead-something I would deem intolerablc-to speak this evening and outside, we are naming space, we are speaking of a visibility of the
of the last book of Marin as I might have spoken in another time and in body, a geometry of gattS, an oriellt:llion of perspectives. We are s~akingof
more conventional circumstances of his most recent book, 'n returning images. What is only in us seems 10 be reducible to images, which might be
regularly to common places, I mean to the places that were common memories or monuments, but which are reducible in any case to a memory
to us, sitting in the office I shared with him for SO long on boulevard that consists of viJible scenes that are no longer anything but images. since
Raspail, walking around the Maison des Sciences de: I'Homme, taking the other of whom they are the images appears only as the one 'Y.,ho has
part just recently in a discussion during the seminar he led for many years disappeared or p.:1ssed away, as the one who, having passed away, leaves
with cc.rtain among you whom I sec: in this room, I have said to myself -in w" only images. He i.s no more, he whom we ke in images or in
that, cver since psychoanalysis came to mark this discourse, the image recollection. he of whom we speak, whom we cite, whom we try to leI
160 CIIAi>T1ll TIN
sfXak-he is no more, he is no longer here, no longer there. And nothing We are all looked at,l said. and each one singularly, by Louis Marin.
can begin 10 dissipate the terrifying and chilling light of this ceruinty. He looks al us. In us. He looks in us. This witne$S sees in us. And from now
As if respect for this ceruinty .....t::re still a debt, the last one, owed to the on more than ever. But what might this indicate beyond a mere rhetorical
friend. commonplace? It would indicate an Ilbsolure excess and dissymmetry in
What this rhetoric of space, this topology and this tropology, miss. the space of what rdates us to ourselves and constitutes the "being-in-
what this description of lack lacks, is thai the force of the image has us." the "bcing.us," in something completdy other than a mere subjective
to do laos with the fact that one SttS something in it than with the interiority: in a place open to an infinite transcendence. The one who
fact that one is s«n there in it. The image SttS more than it is s«n. looks at us in us--andfor whom we are-is no longer, he is complcldy
The image looks at us. (Indttd, some of you hen this e\'ening, Hubert other, infinitely other, as he has alw3ys been, and death has more than
Damisch in particular, work on this inversion of the gaze that comes from ever entrusted him, given him O\'cr, distanced him, in this infinite alte-rity.
painting and on the dissymmetry and demastering brought about by such However narcissistic it m3y be, our subjecti\'e speculation can no longcr
an inversion, and everything Marin tells us of the portrait has to do, in seize and appropriate this gaze before which we appear at the moment
the end, with this inversion of dissymmetry that can be interiorized only when, bearing it in us, bearing it along with every movement of our
by exceeding, fracturing, wounding, injuring, traumatizing Ihe interiority bearing or comportment, we c.'!n get over our mourning ofhim only by
that it inhabits or that welcomes it through hospitality. love, or friendship. getting over om' mourning, by geuing over, by ourselves, the mourning of
This dissymmetry also inscribes-unless il actually depends on it-an ourselves, I mean the mourning ofour aUlOnomy,ofeverything that would
essential anachrony in our being exposed to the other; it dislocates a1\ make us the measure ofourselvcs. Thar is the excess and the dissymmetry:
contemporaneity at the very heart of what we have our sights on at the we bear in ourst:I/lts the gaze that Louis Marin bears 01/ us. Powers of the
saRle time.) image. This gaze is his, and it wi1l::tlways remain his, infinitely; if comes
Louis Marin is outside and he is looking at me, he himself, and I am from him singularly, from him alone, alone as always, more alone rhan
an image for him. Althis very moment. There where J can saycogilo. sum, ever. over there, outside, far away. Far away in us. In us, there where this
I know that I am an image for the other and am looked at by the other, even power of the image comes to OjXn the being-far-away. This excess also
and especially by the mortal other. I mon~ right before his eyes, and the brings about the limitless enlargement of the image. Its power of dilation
force of this image is irreversible (because of the reversion, the conversion, gives it iu greatest force in the mourning of the absolute of "force."
of force into w~kne$S and vice versa). Louis ~1arin is looking at me, and It was, in the end, the expt:rience of this time of reading that I
it is for this, for him, that I am here this evening. He is m)·law. the law, discovered. Louis Marin described this scene on each page of his book,
and I appear before him. before his word and his gaze:. In my relationship all the while mobilizing a corpus at once extfeme:l)' diverse and singularly
to myself, he is h~re in me before me, stronger or more forceful than I. It rich. I was thus read, I said to myself, and staged by what I read; I found
might be said that I came because: other witnesses asked me to. because I myself caught up in the time of his time, inscribed, situated by this other
appt::u also before those: close: to him, Fran~oise, Anne, Frcdhique, and present that was still his this summer. And my sadness, while trying to
Judith, before his friends and the friends we had in common. This is distinguish itself from his, could never really dissociate itself from it. It
surely tru~, but I would not have felt this imperative before them had I still resonates in the very scope and score of his time. He remained the
not known that what unites us is at once common and OUlSide us, and master of it, as one would say of a subject or a disciple.
that we are all looked al (each one of us singularly) by the one who, with It would be necessary 10 accede or do justice to this torsion of the
each page, will have providentially deciphered and prescribed, arranged in time of reading. At once painful and fjscinated. it calls or recalls in
advance, a reading of whal is happening here, of what makes the present advance a SOrt of living present, or what is assumed to be so, that is, our
scene possible, foreseeing and watching over it with the benevolem regard own living present. toward the present of Louis Marin, tOward Ihe olhcr
(since it is he who watches out to watch over us) and with all the love of fractured present of lhe one who, having wrinen this book in-a more or
someone who can 53y, at Ihc moment of dying, e\Ten if he is not Christ lessconlinuous fashion oversevc.ral years,developing still furthc.r premises
or even Christian, hoc ~St mt:"m corpus, which n given for you. Do Ihn in elaborated for more than twenty )'ears, wrote or reviewed a few months
"mnnbranc~ of me' (Luke 2:1.19). ago, I imagine, the preface, and reread-I he ultimate tcst or proof-3J the
editors tell us, almost all the proofs. ahnost, or juS! about, the final proofs, Yet the reading of The Tempest exceeds this purdy political dimen-
the final test. sion. For it shows how the recognition that the king discovers in the
In doing this, he will have brought to term, that is, right up to the
final interruption, the ordeal or the putting to the test of this default of
force wherein is marked the "mourning of the absolute of·force.· ..
gaze that representation turns toward him is also comt;c (P, 175). Had
I had the time, I would have tried to venture into the current space
of this COlmopoli/ics. But the pages that, while just as convincing and
,
For, in the end, what does this book tell us, in its at once paradoxical foree.ful as all the others, nonetheless moved me the most, I would even
and prudent thesis, I would even say in its fantastic apona,or, ifyou prefer, say overwhelmed m~ are those that-in a fe:&ding of whiteness that is
its ontological fluion? That this power whose effects it analyzes does not quite properly da7.Zling, in the writing of white light, in what one might
exisL It never atuins exiS!ence, that is, the presence of the presenL TJr"e want to call the photography of certain Gospels-speak about the potcsUU
is power, theTe are if{«ts of power, but power does not exist. It is nothing. filiarionis. about the son in the bosom of the father, the son as the sight
It is a/tacheo /0 oM/h. which is not. There is only Mforce," the quotation of the image of the futher. Of the father in vietfJ of the soo, of the father
marks reminding us that the effect offorce is attached to the representative looked upon, judged, made possible by the son. An abyssal thought of
fiction. This fiction counts only on the death of the one who is thought to inheritance. It would be necessary to cite here the entire gloss 7 on "the
hold power, from whom it then withdraws power by feigning to confer it son in the bosom of the father" and reread what is said "in the light of
upon him in the portrait. The trait of the portrait, its infinite attraction, the stained·glass window." Marin spe.... ks of this in a dazzling fashion,
is that it subtracts or withdr3ws: it withdraws or takes back all the power for he is himself no doubt bednzled by hc:dazzlement, by knowledge
th,n it confers, hc:cause it requires already in advance the death of the "through bedazzlement," through the blindness that comes from an excess
.subject. the death of the king as subject and of the subject of the subject in of vision. Here again is the theme of what Abbot Suger refers to as
question, th~ll is, of everything related to its reference: a "force renewed~ through the very renunciation of all restitution, all
reconstitution, all postmortem retribution: the gift itself{P, 213). And as
In the rcpre~nt:ltion thou is power, in the power th:n is
for the Transfiguration, the event of the absolute \,jsual that constitutes the
representation, the re:t1-provid«l one undent:l.nds by "rcar the
ground without ground of the foundation of power, the bedazzlement of
al'o''3Ys deferred fulfillment of this dcsire-isl1Olhing other than
whiteness is there associated with this anticipation ofdeath that also marks
t~ fantastic image in which the subject would contemplate iudfu
the time of this book, "3S if." says Marin, "the extreme, final, image, that
absolute.
of the absolutely white figure or face, could only anticipate the taste of an
Ifit ill of the es.scnce ofall forces to tt:nd toward the absolulc,
exquisite death" (P, 239).
it ill part of the "rcalityM of iu subject oC"cr to be: content with nO(
We will never have the time.
being so. The reprcxnt:ltton-efTccu that constitute powers and
Had I had the time. had I been able to treat the last six p:lges of this
that powers in turn permit and authorize would be the mocblitics
book, which speak in gloss 90f'"The Reversion ofShadow and Light" and
(historical, anthropoiogiClI, sociological ... ) of a v.oork-though
ofa certain structural link between "genealogical power" and a supplement
infinite in space and time--of the mourning of the absolute of
of force or "intensification" based on a pas$.1ge from Nieusche's Birth of
·force'.(?, 16-17)
Tragedy, I would have tried to situate a bit hc:tter what is, to my eyes,
All this is worked out, demonstrated, and will live on in the pages Marin's singular place within a hidden tradition, at the heart of a ,s«ret
that will be read and reread on The &tm'td Head, concerning The Deoth lineag~ one thal is inadmissible to every church or chapel. 1 am speaking
of Pompey by Corneille, where we "deadly mirror"-analyu:d earlier in of this heretical filiation that runs from Pascal to Nietz.sche, who was ;tl~
the chapters on the idol, mlfcissism, and the "posilion of the I"-Iets us the thinker of force and of the reciprocal convertibility of the strongest
see, in some sense, the very origin of the political and shows how the Or most forceful and the weakest. These two thinkers have often been
"great politician then converts the phantasmic object, the head of the associated, eSpei:ially during the heyday of existentialism. But t do nOI
Medusa, emblem of the ,·jolent origins of the Sute, the severed head know of anyone before Louis Marin who has given to this intolerable.
of Pompey. into itS own face. the disquieting and eold mask of political genealogy, to this heretical heritage, such a force of cvidence, such titles, I
power" (P. 157). would even say such 3 force of law. If this tradition was possible. virtual,
,64 CIl"f>Tlll TI\N
..,
we:rt housed at rue: Labat in Paris with a woman whom Kofman l.ate:r this organization, noubly £Com (t973), Mim~is d~ articulations (1975).
ide:ntific=d in an autobiographical tut as Mcme. Afte:r the: lilxration of and Qfli a ~ur de la philosophie? (1977), which included contributions
Paris. Kofman was e:ntrusle:d to Manc. though a court lattr ove:rturnc=d from Kofman.
this d«ision and awardro custody to her mother. The bre:adth of Korman's oc=uvre: is remarkable, tre:.ning not only
Afte:r the .....ar. Kofm:m lived in sc=veral diffe:re:nt institutions for philosophy (ranging from the orly Grc=c:ks, Socrates and Plato. to Kant,
children Ixfore returning to live: with he:r mothe:r ;n Paris. Housed in a Rousseau, and Comte) but also literature (E, T, A, Hoffmann, Gerard de
building for "disaste:r victims" ne:ar the: Porte de la Chapclle in the: nonh Nerval, and Shakespeare), ae:sthetics, psychoanalysis, and feminism (or, as
of Paris. she: pre:pare:d for the baccaumrlut exam at the: LycCt: Jule:s-Ferry, she preferred to say, "the:que:stion of woman"), Butthe impactofher Ie:gacy
She then took twO ye:ars of pre:paratory courses at the: Lycee Fendon for has perhaps most de:<lrly been felt in the: study of Fre:ud and Nietzsche,
admission to tht Ecole Normale: Supericure:,living in a dormitory for high to whom she de\'oted some: of her most imporunt work, including Frrod
school girls during this hmt, Kofman e:ventually obtained a Jipl6m~ (now and Fiction (t974), Nin'ZKhe et la sdne phillHOJ'Jriqf~(1979), The Enigmo of
a maitrig) from the: Ecole: Normale: Su~rie:ure: for a thesis on Plato and Woman: Woman in FrroJ's Writings (1980), Un miti" impos.sibk: uC1I4re tk
language. "Co1UtmctionJ en anolyse" (19B3), Pomlfuoi rit-on? Freud et Ie mot d'~prit
Kofman began he:r te:aching car~r in Toulouse at the: Lycee Saint (1g86), "/I n'y a que Ie prmlier pas qui couu": Freud et la spiculation
Semin (1,960-63) before moving back to Paris to te:ach at the Lycee Claude: (1991), Explosiun I: D~ /,,'&a Homo" de Nietzsche (1992). Explosion 1/:
Monet (1963-'70). Her first :lttide, on the: que:stion of e:thics and the us enfanll de Nietuche (1993), and Le mlpris des juifs: Nietzsche, les juifs.
philosophy of the: absurd in S3rtre, was publishe:d in 1963, She began l'antishnitume (1994).
work on her doctoral dissertation, "The: Concept of Culture in Nietzsche: ~spite her impressive publication record, Kofman was often passro
and Fre:ud," unde:r Jean Hyppolite: at the: CoII~ge de France: in 1966, over for tc=nure: and promotion at the Sorbonne, where: she remained a
Gilles Deleuz.e, whose count on ietzsche's On the GnJeology ofMora1.l maItre de confbenc~ (the c=quivalent of an untenured associate professor)
had servm as an inspiration for Kofman while she was studying for her until 1991, whe:n she was finaUy appointtd toa chair. With the publication
agrlgation, took ove:r tht dir«torship of her di~rtation in 1971, in the: late: 19S0s of Smothered Wordr (a book dedicated to the: memory of
Sarah Korman met Jacques Dc=rrida in 1¢9 and attended his sem- her father and to the: work of RoIx:rt Antelme and Maurice Blanchet), her
inars for many ye:ars at the Ecole Normale: SujX:rieure, A number of writing took an increasingly autobiographical turn, Iktw«n April and
her te:XlS, among the:m Camera ObSCIlTd, Nietzsche and Metaphor, and Le September 1993 Kofman wrote: Rile Ordener, rue Labat, an account orhe:r
res~cttksfemmes, were:originally presented as p.1persat Dcrrida'sseminar. childhood betwCC'n the age:s ofe:ight and eighteen.
(Kofman late:r devote:d a book, ucmre$ de ~rrida, to Dc=rricla's work,) In On October t5, 1994, the: one hundrw and fiftieth anniversary of
1970 Kofman took up the post of maitre-QMutant at the: Unive:rsity of Paris Nietzsche's birth, Sarah Kofman took he:r own life.
I, Sorbonne:. He:r first book publication. The ChiltJllood ofAn, a study of
Freud's aesthe:tics, dates from the same )'or,
The: ye:ar 1972 saw the=: publication of Nietz.JC},e ond Metaphor, In
the: same year she took jXIrt in the=: famous Ce:risy-Ia-Salle=: confe:re:nce: on
Nie:tzsche: and contributed an e:ssay to the: procttdings, publish«l under the
title: Nietz.seheaujourd'hui? As the: number ofher publications on iet2.SChe:
and Freud grew, Kofm3n aoondoned her originlll dissen3tion project and
earnro her doctorate in 1976 on the: basis of already published work. She
was also e:venrually awarded a doctoral J'Nat in philosophy,
In the mid-19705 Kofman was a member of GREPH (Groupe
de: rc=cherches sur I'enstignemem philosophique), a group formro with
Jacques Derrida. Jean-Luc Nancy, and Philippe Lacoue:-Labarthe. A
number of collective texts were: published under the imprimatur of
SA""'" KOPNAJt 169
,
At first I did not know-and I in fact still do not know-what title to give One wonders what is laking place. One wonders what a place is, the righr
to these words. or just place, and what placement is, or displacement, or replacement. One
What is tht= gift of a tiue? wonders about such things insofar as a book always comes to take the place
I even had the A«ting suspicion that such a gift would be somewhat of the body, insofar 3S it has always tended to replace the proper body, and
indecent: it would imply the violent selection of a perspective, an abu- the sexed body, to become its name even, and occupy its platt, to serve in
si\'e interprerati\'e framing or narcissistic reappropriation, a conspicuous place of Ihis occupant, and insofar as we collaborate with this substitution,
signature there where it is Sarah Kofman, Sarah Kofman alone, Sarah lending or givingoursdves over to it, for this isall we ever really do, we are
Kofman herself, Oller there lid-basi,' heyond here, well beyond me or us this, we like this,and each word speaks volumes for lending itself from the
here and now, Sarah Kofman who should be spoken about and whom I very first moment to this spiriting away of the proper body, as if already
hear speaking. :tt the behest of the proper body in question, following its paradoxical
Sarah Kofman desirt=, its impossible desire, me desire to interrupt itself, to inlerrupt itself
would then be the beSt titl~ were I not afraid of being unable to measure in sexual differenc~ interrupt itself as sexual difference.
up to it. What is a place, then, a right or just place when everything seems to
Fin:llly-since the question remains that of the gift and of what it be ordered, and seems to begin, by the mourning of this replacement?
means to give a title-it seemed to me more JUSt to speak, and for just this What is a just place when everything takes place and lakes its place
reason. of the gift in Sarah Kofm:m, of her gifts: those she gave uS,lhose as if the dying wish of the so-alled proper, or lived, or living body-for
she left us, and those she too perhaps received. when I say body, I mean the living body as well as the sexed body-as ifthe
The title: would then be supreme affirmation of this headstrong living be.ing were this testament.
Sarah Kofman's Gifts the oldest and the newest: "this is my bod)'," "keep it in memory of me,"
And here arc a few possible subtitles, to !,>lve you some idea of what and so, "replace it, in memory of me, with a book or discourse to be bound
I would like to say: in hide or put into digital memory. Transfigure me into 3 rorpu.r. So that
Here There there will no longer be any difference between the place of real presence
O""n Book, CIO><d Book or of the Eucharist and the great computerized library of knowledge."
Protestations This great eucharistic paradigm was first of :III, and perhaps will
Here and there, we find the body and we find the book, the open always remain, what is proper to man, J mean to the son or the father. For
book and the closed book. And protestations. Between the two, between is this not a scene of mt=n? No doubt, as long, that is, as we keep to the
here and there, between the body and the book, between the open book visibility of the scene.
and the closed one, there would be, here and there. the third, the witness, We will perhaps talk later about the veil of a certain Last Supper
theurJ/;s, testimony,attestation, and testament-but in the form of protest scene, I mean tht= Last Supper ICme} of the Holy Table. We will touch
or protest<ttion. upon the veil ofmodesty that it lays OUt or barely lifts over sexual difference,
from the promise and the giftofthe body, the "this is my body and keep it
Rl:primrd. wilh changes, from M ••••• tun,loatw by Pucak-Annc: Braull and Mtdw:1
.-
in memory of me," right up to the laying in the tomb and the Resurrection.
NallS. in II Saroh KDj",.,,, RCfJdn; cd. Georg", Albe:n and Torn Albrecht (SGnfQrd: Scanford Sarah Kofman knew this; she thought it, I believe, and analyzed
Univt'Dity PrC'$);, )001). Fiffl French Ilubliation. W cllh;m dll Ori/. no. J (Paris: I~anes &. it-but she prottsud, yes, she no doubt prousred with all the strength of a
CiI:, 1991). lJI-65 (tbe WUI: w;u ok"Olro 10 S:lr:.lh Kofmoan). Ou, dunk, ro d~ mcmben: of a
living irredt=ntin against this movement to which, like all of us, and frOm
1999 Frcnch radinAgrQUp oal lkPaul Univenny ror dM:lr many judICIOUS sugo.ti<>m on an
orly dr:.lfCChriSlopher Butand,lknlamin~, P\alwnc DeArm'u. Manhcw PadKJkc, the very first day, she had to succumb. It is of this protestation that I would
FJiulKth Sik6, Samuel T:lIlc:otl. Pcll:r WOlke. like to speak, Sarah Kofman's protestation, such as I hear it and believe
,. M o..rridoa w,1I ck:vdof' bll:r, U..h.J (Oye< IlM:re) SIlUnd.l likl: uNt, tIM: .... f1'Iof: or lhe myself, in my own WOly, to share in it.
SH~ in Pari' ... hl:r.. &lrah Kofm... li~ed a~ a YQUIlI! tl,r1.- T,."u.
I am not sure I have the right to assume you would know this, but How does one give an account of the Kcret of whal is held or kept
you should be aware mal Sarah Kofman was for me, in her own way, and and so refuses itself in this way? The question is all the more formidable
for more than Iwenty years. a great friend. Yes, in her own way, hut I insofar as this unlocatable double, the place 10 hold and the speech 10 Ix
was her friend in m)' own way 100. r will not be able 10 speak of our own held or the word to Ix kepi, the eXJXrience of whal is twice held unlmable.
way, which was certainly different, nor of our ways toward one another, is at the same time the most common experience of friendship.
whether good or bad. But were we not the only ones. she and I, and am I There is nothing exceptional about this.
nOI theonl)' one today to know, if nOI to understand, something about this? From the first moment, friends become, as a result of their situation,
What we shared within the public space, for instance, in places of virtual survivors, actually virtual or virtually actual, which amounts to
publication, had 10 do first with the exercises and interests. the aims and just about the same thing. Friends know this, and friendship breathes this
challenges of philosophy, of thinking, teaching, reading, :lnd wriling. knowledge. breathes it right up to tlpiration, righr up to the last breath.
These interests and exercises go so far beyond the limiu of a short These possible survivors thus Stt themKI\'es held to the untenable. Held
narrative, indeed of a terminable analysis, that I will not even anempt to the impossible 3S possible impossible survivors, so that some might be
to speak of them. Those interested will find innumerable small signs in tempted to conclude from this that friends are impossible people.
our respective publications. These remains are little more than elliptical We are that, we were that. I willialk a great deal, here again today,
greetings, sometimes justa wink; they remain to be interpreted by anyone, of the impossible. And of the impossible betWttll S:lrah and me.
including myself, for I am nOt always certain from where I stand today
that I am still able to decipher them.
I have spent the past few weeks rereading cert:lin of Sarah's texts Impossible: that is no doubt what we were for one another, Sar:;th and
with the feeling. the certaint)· e\'en, that for me everything still remains to I. Perhaps more than others or in some other way. in innumerable ways
come :lnd to be understood. that I will not be able to recount here. considering all the scenC$ in which
But there is no longer any doubt: such testimonies survive us, we found ourselve5 together, all the scenes we made before one another. I
inclculable in their numbe:r and meaning. sometimes catch myselfagain making a .scene before her, in order to catch
They survive us. Already they survive us, keeping the last word- up with her, and 1 smile at this sign of life, of the life in which I am no
and keeping silent. doubt still obscurely trying to keep her, that is, keep her alive. To ~conjure
But the place of a survivor is un locatable. If such a place were e"er death," as she says in her last ttll-whieh implies both to conjure it up
located, it would remain untenable, unbearable, I would almost say deadly. and conjure it away, to summon ghosts and chaK them away. always in
And if it appe3red tenable, the spe«.h to be: held or the word to be kept the name oflife, to summon and chase away. and thus to pursue the other
mere would remain impossible. Such speech or such a word is thus also as the other dead. As if I were making yel another scene before her in
untenable-unbe:arable. response to hers, just so as to make things 13stlong enough to say to her:
The word kept untenable. held to be unbearable rJmrole dl·tenue you see,life goes on, i['s still the same old story....
inrmoblel· But since it's all about "being impossible" here, perhaps we must
In a text that I shall cite later, Sarah speaks ofa "secret" that is held accept this side of things. That is, if we Can. We cannot say everything,
(a "secret they would hold," she says, the "they" being "'doctors," men of that's impossible, say everything aOOm Sarah, what she was, what she
science, appointed physicians), and it is the secret of a life, of life. of what thought and wrote, cverything aboul a work whose: richness, force, and
she c311s "an opening onto life."~ necessity the future will never cease to appreciate. We can only accept this
side of things kn prmdre Jon ptlrti] and take up sideslprrodre partiJ.
I am thus taking up this side of things by taking a side-the sid,¢ of
1. Sat~h Korman. ~L:a tIKI.. cnnjurfe: Rcm~rqUl:i Jur La Il:(nn d'an~l(tlllic: du dueleur Sarah.
Nic<>la' Thlp, .6J:I M:luribhuu. La Hayc,~ in LA pun tk roriJ, ed. AI~.. nd~ Kyrit_
(Btu_It: PraloC. de: rAca~mi~ roy:lle<b beaux-arude Bruxclle;;)' no.• I (1995): 1 .....,.
So here would be ;.\nother title:
T ....n.laled by PaK4llc·Anne 8nult as ~ConJunng Death." in II S.m4 K.ofi-tr Rtwkr;. Sarah's Side
ed. Grof-Ji. AIM" and Tom Albreehl (Sanrord: Stanford UnivcnilY Pras, _.). Taking a side, then, within this side of things, I finally chose to
$"'1.411 KO'MJl.N I]J
llpeak of the an of Sarah. Her art-and this is the side on which I will According to the hypothesis I am going to put before you, Sarah
wager-will have given me the chance to ukt: sides. interpreted laughter like an artist, she laughed like an artist but also
I will thus speak of her art but also of hcr laughter-indissociably. laughed at art, like an artist and in the name oflife, not without knowing
We would thus havt:: two additional subtitles. that neither art nor laughter saves us from pain,anxiety, illness, and death.
Since the death ofS:uah, and I owt: it to her, as lowe it to the truth, For she knew these things better than anyone else: pain, anxiety, illness--
to say this, assuming that I might at Ian be able to do so, since the death and death. Art and laughter, when they go together, do not run counter to
of Sarah-and what a death-it has been impossible for me to speak alii suffering, they do not ransom or redeem it, but live off it; as for salvation,
knew I wanted to, impossible to speak to her, 10 her, as one does without redemption, and resurrection, the abse.nce of any illusion shines like a ray
pretending to friends who have disappe.ued, impossible also to spe:ak 0/ of living light through all of Sarah's life and work. We will later hear a
her,asother friends, who are also mine, have known how todo--and havt:: few of her texts that s,,)' this better than I can right now. This ray of living
done so wdl, and were so right to do. light concerns the absence of $3lvation,through an art and a laughter that,
I thus had to try to relearn everything, and I am still at it. while promising neither resurr«tion nor redemption, nonethelcss remain
Let us then not hasten to think of mourning, of an impossible n«essary. With a n«essity to which we must yield. This ray ofliving light
mourning. For we would thcn run the risk of missing, or actually we was her lucidity and what I was tempted toull,a moment ago, b)' analogy,
would nOi fail to mi.'lS, under somt:: clinical category, some general type her irredentism, right up to the end, and even through the end.
of mourning---to which a certain guilt is always associated-this incisive, Her art and her laughter, themS4=:lves indissociable, were aJso in-
singular, and unappeasable suffering that I simply could not bear, preciS4=:ly dissociably interpretations of art and laughter. Her interpretations were
out of friendship, to transfer 01'll0 someone else, and even less onto some not only r~dings or theoretical acts but affirmations, themS4=:lves art and
conceptual generality that would not be Sarah, Sarah Kofman herS4=:lf. laughter, and always affirmations oflik When I insiSt that they were not
For me too, of course, Sarah was unique. only readings but also acts and experience itself, my point is not to exclude
And even if I were still (0 blame her for my suffering, at least it reading from this. For reading was always on the part of Sarah a firm,
would be her, and her alone, who would be implicated, and th:lt is my unconditional, uncompromising, unrelenting, and implacable demand.
first concern here. There would be nothing very new in this, for over the lmpl:acable interpretations, implacable like Nietzsche and Freud,
course of twenty years ofa tender, tense, and sometimes stormy friendship, for example, and all thoS(: pitiless doctors of arts and of laughter whom
of, dare I say, an impossible friendship, impo.'lSible right up to the end, we she cited and summoned to appear and speak, inexhauStibly, sometimes
often blamed one another. She would make fun of me, she in me would against themsehes, in truth protesting always against themselves, and
once more take me to task, were I to try to deny, transfigure, sublimate, or against one another, wh.ile laughing it up.
idealize this long story. For she too was without pity, if nOi without mercy. in the end, for
Against such a lie, she would once again be right. both ietzsche and Freud, whom she knew and whose bodies of work she
Among all the things we shared (l ha'·e already said that I would had rt::ad inside and out. Like no one else in this century, I dart:: say. She
not be able to count them and, besides, the texts bear wiLness to them to a loved them pitilessly, and was implacable towards them (not to mention
certain point), there was this protestation (a word I prefer to accusation), a few others) at the very moment when, giving them without mercy all
of which J would like to let something be he:lrd through her laughter and that she could, and all that she had, she was inheriting from them and
her art. was keeping watch over wh:lt they had-what they Still havt::-to tell us,
especially regarding art and laughter.
I will thus venture a few words to try to say what I believe I can hear Art and laughter were al~ for her, no doubt, readings of art
through her art and her laughter, as weU as through her im"pretation of and of laughter, but these readings were also operations, experiences
both art and laughter, which, it seems to me, carries through all her work. or experimentS, journeys. These readings I/ecrure.r! were leYOM in the
and, from her body, carries all the books in the great body of work she has magisterial S4=:n.se of an exemplary leccuring or teaching (and Sarah was a
left us. grt::at professor,asso many students throughout the world can testify); they
174 CIIAPTU llL.IiVPiN
read in French, 10 corpse seems to put the body in the feminine and to of the very concepts of repression and denegation, an interpretation of
becolTle an allusion to sexual difference, if not a respect for it. their ultimate function, of the ultimate meaning of their strategy, Under
Unecorpse: here would be the subject; there would be the object. their negative or oppositional :lppearance, through their grammaticlll or
I say "historical fascination" or "history of a preference" for the book strategic negativity, repression, suppression, and denegation would be in
because all this belongs to a history, It is precisely a reading of this history the service of an affirmation oflife. Repression would be yet another ruse
that this lesson on a lesson offers us. of affirmation, a trap Itoo much] and a trope, an excess and a figure orlhe
For what does Sarah Kofman tell us of this corpse in The Anatomy "yes" to life, a number or figure of theamorjati. The science of life would
Lesson? That this image of the corpse is replaced or displaced. its place taken itself be an art of living; it would have come from, and would take part
by the book (as seems to be happening to us at this very instant), replaced~ in, an art of life. The side or part taken by the artist, the art of me painter
displaced by"a book wide open at the foot ofthe deceased." This open book (like that of the interpreter), would consist in interpreting the truth of this
organizes: an organ detached from the body, it has an organizing mission. art oflife,
Detached from the body, this quasi organ, this corpus, in turn organizes The invincible force of this art of life, :I force that is at once
space. In an :l.t once centripetal and centrifugal fashion. Decentered wim irreducible, irredentist, its time literally interminable, even in death, at
regard to the body, as you look at the body, it centers or (ecenters in turn a the moment of de.1th, the ~l:ln of an 3rt thaI is at once all powerful
new magnetic field; it irradiates it but also capitalizes upon it and captures and, in the end, powerless, given to failure, frustrated before what is
all the forces of the painting. An open book attracts all the gazes. called death itself, this impotence of the all~powerful, this ineffective-
This book (l"i-masculine pronoun-Trans.J stands up to, and ness of an all-powerful that refuses to let up even though it is really
stands in for, the body: a corpse replaced by a corpus, a corpse yielding nothing-that is what invites a good laugh: it is truly comical, isn't it,
its place to the bookish thing, the doclOrs having eyes only for the book laughable, crazy, off the wall, and we can receive from it, as a lesson, the
f.'lcing them, as if, by reading, by observing the signs on the drawn sheet of inheritance of an art of living that knows a thing or two about the art
paper, they were trying to forget, repress, deny, or conjure away death- of laughter.
and the anxiery before death. That is at least what I think I hear in the following passage, which
[. . I mentions lift three times in this place where book: cadaver; corpus, and
But instead ofseeing here a simple negativiry ofdis/TOetion (negation, corpse exchange places.
denegation, lie, occultation, dissimulation), Sarah Kofman seems to sense
in this repression, in a no doubt very Nietzschean fashion, a cunning They have before thcm not 3 sUbjecl but an object, a purely tech·
affirmation of lif<!:, its irrepressible movement to survive, to live on (sur- nical instrument that one or them nlanipultltes in order to get a
vivreJ, to get the better of itself in itself, to lie by telling its truth of life, to hold on the truth of lif~. The dead man and the opening orhis body
affirm this truth of life through the symptom of repression, to express the are seen only insofar as they provide an opening onto lif~, whose
irrepressible as it is pUt to the test of repression, to get, in a word, the better .secret they would hold. The fascination is displaced and, with this
of life, that is to say, of death, giving an account of life: to defeat death by displacement, the anxiety repressed, the intolerable made tolerable,
affirming a "hold on the truth oflife," a "science oflife and its mastery." from the sight of the cadaver to that of the book wide open at me
There would thus be a secret of life. Life would hold the sC(:ret of foot of thc deceased, who might now sen'e as a lectcrn.
the secret, and all secrets would keep life alive, For the claim over such This opening orme book in all its light points back to the
a secret, even if it is not justified, even if it is merely an allegation of opening of the: body. For the book alone allows the body to be
anguished scholars, could still be read as a redoubled affirmation aflife. deciphered and invites the passage: from the e:xterior to the interior.
Lessons given: what this lesson on the US501J. this physiological It is this book (and the opening it provides onto the science of life
lesson on :I lesson of anatomy, gives us would be not only a diagnosis and its mastery) thatauracts the gaus, much more: even than lhe ,
concerning a repression or a denegation (later on, we will also talk about pointofthc: scissors that has begun to peel away the: skin from the:
:l "conjuring" and :I "conspiracy"), nOl only a thesis on the historicity of body st'tC:lched OUt there. (My emphasis)
this repression and this denegation, but an at least implicit interpretation
178 CIIIlPTU. I!ll.EVI!lN fIlMIl KorMAN 179
Sarah Kofman thus says: "displacement" of an "anxiety repressed," to it; as if death separ:lted the n.. me and the body, as if it tore the name
and the "imoler<lble m<lde tolerable." In numerous texts, tOO numerous away from the body, as if, nsa result, everywhere the name were detached
to cite and analyze here, Sarah Kofman has thoroughly examined the from the body-----alld this happens to us all the lime, especially when we
question of the relationship between l<lughter, jokes, and the economy of speak, write, and publish-we were attesting, right there, to death, as if
repression, the complicated symptomatology of repressed anxiety. we were witnessing to it, all the while protesting against it:
f ... J Those around him seem 10 be unmovw by any feelings for him,
for somcone who, just a shondme ago, wassIill full of life, had a
3 name land Sarah takes pleasure in recalling in a note the child, the
lillie boy, undcr the name of thisC01p1e: "According to the account,
Before the diagnosis, after the diagnosis of the diagnosis, before and after
the cadaver is thM of a recently hanged man, identified by llame
the lesson on the UswI1, before and after S<lrah Kofman's diagnosis of the
and nickname as Abrian AdriaCll7., caUed the kid, Ht( Kimi"I, was
diagnosing attitude of the doctors, of the anatomical gaze and medical
a m,1I1 JUSt like lhcm. Their gllzes displllY neilhc.r pity, nor terror,
knowledge, the little word fd comes up, mC<lning at once here [ieil and over
nor fright. They do nOl seem to idelltify with the cadaver stretched
there lld-btul, right there, between here and over there, between tin and
outmt'l'e. They do nOl see in it t~ image of what they themselves
fori. It comes up, nght tMre rial, three times. Three times w speak of the
will one day be,of What,llnh4..noWlllt to themselves, they lire in dIe
presence of rhe dead person or ofrhe corpse stretched out right 'here, of the
process ofbec:oming. (My emphMis)
rorpse of man's body korpsl, of a man's body-and not a woman's.
Three times right there lldl, the S3me number of times as the word In other words, thisthue, thisri'ght there. which they hold atadistanee
"life:' to disrupt an identification that they unconsciously fear, is also, right here,
And the whole lesson on the Lesson questions and teaches chis here the pillee of their unbel(nol/ling. to wit, Ihal which they arc here and now
reefal, thisrlgnt there lee MI, this being-right-there of the body rcorpsl or of unwittingly in the process oflx=coming-according to the process of life
10 rorpse in the corpus of the work of at[. and the process of .. rt, two processes to which they are, in all the senses of
[ ... J this word,exposed, thr~~tim('Sexposed without knowing icexposed to gazes
What is at stake here is indeed the being~right-there(here and over or looks when they belie,te themselves to be looking, exposed as mortals,
there)oftherorpse. Three times the adverb/a (like the musical note "Ia"- as living beings destined to die, nnd exposed in the painting as a work of
Tram.] comes to set the tone. Three times it comes to 10C3lize both the body an and by the work of art. "They do not see in it the image of what they
ofdeath :lnd its taking~placein the work, the work ofart, its representation, themselves will one day be, of what, unbeknownst to themselves, they are
as we s.,'ly, in a painting, although it is alre.'ldy, as dead, framed or displayed in the process of becoming. They arc not fascinated by the cadaver, which
in the anatomical exhibition, which is -also n work or operation between they do not seem to see as such."
the eye and the hand-gaze, surgery, dissection. They are thus seen not seeing, and, visible as nonseeing, visible as
So here are the three /d's, and then voila, there it is, a gift of modesty, blinded, they are being diverted, distracted from the fascination for that
only;1 veil there [un tloifem 10] to veil the sex, the being-nght-thert' of (the) thing there, diverted by the distracting distance of this right there; and this
sex, that is to say, sexual difference: "And with this dissimulation of the distraction is their ver}' position of objective knowing or learning, their
body, its fragility, its mortality, comes to be forgotten, even though it is very gaze, their point of view and their doctoral objectivization:
exhibited in full light by the pale cadaver that is right rhere Ita], purely and and their SQlemnity is not the SOrt that can be awakened by the
simply lying there, naked (only the sex is modestly veiled), in the most mystery of death.
absolute anonymity" (my emphasis). They have before them not a subject but an object, a purely
What is most remnrkable here is the insistence on anonymity, on the technical inStrument that one of them manipulates in order [0 get a "
loss of the name in the being·right~there of the corpg; ir is as if death cut hold on the truth of life. Thede3d man and the opening ofllis body
the name offin the midstoflifc, severed the name from the living one who are seen only insofar as they provide an opening onto life, whose
bore it, and this would be precisely its work as death, the operation proper 5C(;ret lhey would hold. The fascination is disp1:lced.
180 CHAPTU IlLEyltN
A moment .3.go we were told that they arC' not fascinatC'd, not the economic signature that was always hers, the: logic of a testimonial
f3scinate:d by thC'cadaver, but that did not mean mat they are not fascinatC'd idiom: her affirmation, her protestation in the name of life. She: ends up
at all: they ha\'e simply turned from one fascination to another, me affirming the triumph of life, as Shelley would have said, not the uiumph
fascination simply bC'ing displaced: ofdeath but the: triumph over death-not through 3 denegation regarding
2n anxiety o\'e:r de:am (Sarah knew what th:1t could be:), nOl. through the
and, with this displacement, the anxiety is repressed, the inlolenble
re:linquishing of a knowledge of death, but, on the conuary, through an
m...de lolerable, from the sight of the cada\'er 10 that of the book
active interpretation that renounces neither knowledge nor the knowledge
wide open :n the fOOl of the deceased, who might now serve as a
of knowledge, that is to say, the knowledge of the role th:u occultation
ICClern.
or repression might still play in certain forms of knowledge. Whence
This opening of Ihe book in all ia light points back 10 the
the deployment of so many types of knowledge, the rigorous analysis of
opening of the body. For the book alone allows Ihe body 10 be
an imersemiotic and intertextual imbrication of spe«h, writing, 2nd the
deciphered and inviles the passage from the eXlerior w the inlerior.
silence of the body, of the sacred book and the book of science, book and
It is this book (and the opening it provides onto the science oflife
painting, in more than one corpus, and first of all within Rembrandt's
and itS mastery) thai auraets Ihe gaus, much more even than the
corpus, especially in the twoAnalomy usrons painted by Rembrandt some
poim of the scissors th:1I has begun to peel away the skin from the
twenty years apart.
body slme/ud out thru. (My emphasis)
Twenty years apan, and there is always another anatomy lesson, yet
~The fascination is displaced." I suggested earlier that "they are one more Ie:sson.
nOI fascinated" still implies fascination. The repression of fascination is a Here is the conclusion, where you will be able 10 admire along with
repression fascinated by what it represses, and which it simply submits to me the pr«ision ofan analytical scalpel that does not forgo any knowledge
a topical translation, to a change of place, in a play betw~ the he:re and bur mat alsodoes not fail to reaffirm Iife--operatingin fact so as to reaffirm
the o\'er there. life, bUI without resurrection or redemption, without any glorious body:
I... 1
This would be another way of saying that me science oflife, along The doctors of Tit< Amllom)' iAJon are gazing down at the book
with the book, along with the corpus and the corporation, do indeed of SoCience with the same attentive fervor a.s that found in other
fascinate, and let them$Clves be: fa.scin3ted, and so displace attention, and paintings (ICC, for exampte, Jordaeos's Four Ewngdists, mentioned
replace, repress, deny, and di\'e:rt, disuacting one from de:ath as much as by Claudel), where the evangelists are looking down at the: lacred
from life, to be sure, but alw3ys in Inc name of lift. Thd(: are: at once books from which they dnw the confirmation of their mnsage.
sympl0ms and affirmations of 2 life m3t, in me end, as the: unconscious In Tnr Anatomy usson, the book of science Llkes the: ptaceof
th2t it is, does not: know 3nd does not want to know de2th, wants not to the Bible; for one truth anomer has been substituted, a truth that is
know it, actively wanting this before reactively doing so. no longe.r simpty confined to books since it finds its experimenlal
Here is a lesson, then, concerning what we do, in pl3ee ofdeath, when confirmation in the opening ofa cada\'er. The cadaver of Christ (for
we: write or read books, when we talk about one book in lieu of an other. example, the one: by Manlegna in the Breta Art Gallery in Milan,
Sarah points a finger at these doclors, denouncing them to some extent, for alluded to by the: sccondAllIuom), usson, tn.1t of Amsterdam) has
having suddenly become indifferent, all taken up by the book, apparently been repbced by that of a man recently hanged, ~ purely passive
"unmoved by any feclings for him, for someone who, just a short (imeago, object, manipul:lted, displaying no emotion, signaling no Resurrec·
was still full o[\ife, had a name, was a man just like them"-and whom tion, Redemption, or nobility. The cut into the flayed body thus also
the: book of Kience, just like the effect of the corpse, returns to anonymity. cuts into the religious illusion of a glorious body.
I·· ·1 The lesson of this AtuJromy uuon is thus not that of a me- \,
And jun as she is about to draw a double: lesson, what she calls the mmto mori; it is nOt that ofa lriumph of death but of a triumph
"lesson of this Anatomy Lesson," he:r own lesson, S3mh Kofman makes a over de:ath; and this is due nOt to [he life of an illusion, but [0 that of
gesture: that I would regard as a sort ofiniti:J1ing. It's like: the short stroke, the speculalive, whose function tOO is one ofoccultation.
18~ CIfAI'TU; ILI.Vitol
Though uncompromising in her analysis of a spcc.ulation, this ru~ smiling to ber, as if over a sign of life in reconciliation. And when it comes
of the speculative whose «onomy remains in the se.rvice of occultation to scenes, I have to say that I'll never bt: able to make as many as she; I'll
and repression, indcro of sublimation or denegation, Sarah Kofman ne\'er catch up.
nonetheless detttts in it the work of art, that is, art's work. She docs
so in order bof:h to han~ some fun with it and subscribt: to it, to laugh at it I bt:gan with the end; I would now like to end with the beginning.
but also to approve in it,love, affirm, 3nd repeat in it, the affirmation ofan. "Some twenty years apan,.. as I emphasized and repeated earlier
She dttiphers in it, or once again sees in it, the invincible triumph oflik when quoting her on the two works of Rembrandt that bear the title TM
This becomes clear when the word Mlifc" gets drawn intoa strange syntax: AnatQmy~n.
not: illusory life or, as she says, "life ofan illusion," the "religious illusion of Some twenty years apart.
a glorious bodyM which she had just mentioned, but life again, the life of Had I me time, I would teU you how I reread today what worked,
the spcc.ulative. insofar as it remains, even in its function ofoccult.ation or for more than twenty years, as this protestation of life devoted to art
illusion, the nonillusory lift ofan illlilion, manifesting, affirming, and still and laughter. More than twenty years ago, Sarah came to see me for the
holding on to life, carrying it living right to its limit. first time aJready to teU me, among other things, that she protested or
The subject denies (dbnentHenegation, and that is perhaps the objected to something I had ventured in PLato's Pharmacy. Everything
logic of protestation, of a protestation that says 110ft) without illwi()n, thus began with this scene. When, after becoming friends, we chose
that s,'lys, nOt without illusion, no without illusion to the illusion and the together, or so I thought, the title of her fir..r book, The Childhood of
denel,rarion ofdeath, no to a death conspired or conjured away. ("Conjuring Arr,<l I did not understand or recognize what I understand better today,
Death" is the title of this last text on the Anatomy LrSJons, which shows. in after having read Smothertd Wortif' (berween Blanchot and Antelme, in
shon, the body or corporation of doctors as the gathering of a conspiring the wake of Auschwitz), and Rue Ordmt:r, rtlt Labar,6 namely, that this
or a co1l$piracy [conju1'lltionJ; the body of the corporation is the body of a first book-so rich, so sharp, so perfectly lucid in its reading of F'reud-
conspiracy,thcooth, intrigue, and plot ofasocial body th:n will do anything was also the childhood of the an, the child's play, of Sarah Kofman.
toconjurc away death.) But this no to conjuring death is not spoken in the An autobiographic I anamnesis, an uurobiogriffurt. All the places--of the
name of de:nh; it speaks still in the name of life, of the work of art and of father. of the mothers, of the substitution of mothers, of laughter and life
the book oflife. It is inscribed in the book oflife. in the book of the li\ting, as works of an-were there already ..(knowledged, rigorously ..ssigned.
there where, ir's lTQZ)' rodmy ir, it dmie5/iJet lTQZY k"a dbnmrl-in the name r... J
of a life that knows that the name oflife, as we have said, is not life. Yes, Inste..d of spending the time we really ought to .. round the final
no(t) without any illusion. pages of The Childhood ofArt (around what is said there ..bout laughter,
Some might consider my granting such a pri\tilege to this last text, about the enigma of art as life, about artistic life, about what Nietzsche
to the reaffirmation of the work of life as work of art, to be a stratagem calls "laughing at oneself"' ICA, 224 n. 141, about the phra~ "one can either
on my part, a ruse to conjure away death in my turn, and, through this cry or laugh" on the next-to.-Iast page [CA. 1731, about the world that, for
ru~, which I do not deny, a sort of protestation against her death: a Nietzsche as for Freud, plays "an innocent 'child's g:rme' guided by chance
protestation, that is 10 say, a sort of testimony SO as to attest to what and necessity,M when ..the true art is the art of life" (CA. 1741), instead of
was in her 3 connan! protest3tion. A lesson in protestation. In nonnegati\'e all that, J rush toward a scene at the table, and toward laughter, as is often
prot'estation. But also.a lesson in the fact that "protestation" will have been, done in the most difficult moments of mourning.
I now realize as IliSlen to all the resonances of this word, the ptivileged
mode, the most constant and most common tonality of our face·to.-face ~. Sarah Kofman. TIv C/uUJht»J of An: tI" JIUn'l'm4lion of Frtu41 MIM,;..,. trans. ..
encounters. Winifr«l Woodhull (Ncw York: Columbia Uni"cnity Prell', 1?!l8) (hcTcaftcr
abbreviated as CA).
Throughout our entire friendship, during deades of work and
5· S.u~h Kofnan. S_km' Wont<. trans. Madckinc Dobie: (Evan'llOfl: Nonhwutcrn
shared concerns, we protested, sometimes even against one another, right UnivCUHy PrC$5, I99&).
up until the end, and I catch mysdf still protening. I catch myself still 6. S.u:lh Kg(man. R_ o.w....n. r_ U.Nt, u:ans. Ann Smock (Lincoln: UnivcrWfy of
making scenes before her, as I $.1.id earlier, and I smile over this, while Ncbr;u.... Press. 19')6).
Sarah dedicated a copy of her text "Damned Food" to me in 1980 As I 5.1id, we must have: told this Jewish joke to each other, and
by circling the title of the volume, Mang~" [Eating], in order to write the probably while eating. And we must haveagrc:ed that it was not only funny
words: "in the hopes of Eating together." but memorable, unforgettable, precisely insofar as it tre:1ts this tre:l.tment
Six years later, on New Year's Day 19B6, the dedication to PourqUQ; of memory called forgiveness. There is no forgi\'eness without memory,
rit~n? Freud n I~ mot d'~SfJr;t still spoke of the uble. It read: "For Jacques surely, but neither is there <lny forgiveness that can be reduced to an act of
and Marguerite, recalling the good Jewish jokes we once peddled at table, memory. And forgiving does not amount to forgening, especially not, A
and hoping we can do it again one day." joke "for laughs," no doubt. but what about it makes us laugh, laugh and
Now, what is the last word of this great book that says both every· cry, and laugh through our tears or our anxiety?
thing :l.nd the rest about laughter, as well as about the apotropaic economy It is no doubt first a matter of its economy, an economy powerfully
oflaughter according to Freud? It is, preci~ly, the "last word," The book analyzed by Freud, and then by Sarah Kofman questioning Freud. In faet,
ends in this way: "By W2Y of conclusion, let's give laughter the I:l.St word" in the chapter "The Three Thieves," in the subs«tion "Peddling: The
(PR, ,!j8). Economic Necessity of the Third," a note also speaks of forgiveness. It
But right before this last word on the last word comes :I. Jewish joke, speaks of the economy of "pleasure g1\'en by the supe-rega, the forgivroess
a 50rt of postseriptum.1t is:l. joke we had once told each other. Here is the that it in some sen~ grants, bringing humor close: to the maniacal phase,
postseriptum: since, thanks to these: 'giju.· the diminished '1' finds itself if not euphoric,
at least lifted back up" (PR, 104; my enlphasis).
Finishing this book toda)'. September 25, the day of Yom Kippur,
WithoUl venturing any further in this direction,let me keep for the
I annOl resist peddling (this word was alread)' us.ed, r«all, in the
moment to a rough analysis of this Jewish joke: tWO enemies make the:
dedication, which was iudf alluding to a subsection of the: book
gc:srure to forgive one another. they feign to do so. "for I:l.ughs," but by
entided "Peddling," whose subtitle is 1'he Economic N«essity of
inwardly reopening or pursuing the hostilities. In the process, they admit
the Third"; and I rtt:;lll that my last conversation with Sarah must
to this inexpiable war. and bl3me one another for it reciprocally, as ifin a
have more or less dir«tly concerned, at the time it was imerruptcd,
mirror. That the admission should be: made by way of a symptom rather
a nory aoom the peddling of history and the «onomie n«essity of
than a declaration changes nothing as far as the truth is concerned: they
the third) this Jewish joke told by Throdore Reik (who has written
have not disarmed, they continue to wish one another ill.
much on the Great Atonement 2nd the song ofKol Nidre}: "Two
I will thus \'enture to say this, to address to you something that once
Jews, long·sunding enemies, meet at the synagogue on the day of
again concerns laughter, art "for laughs" and the art of laughter. :l.nd to
the Great Atonement. One says to the other lby way offorgivene51}:
address this to you as if to Sarah. to Saf'3h in me. Allegorically: what these
"1 wish you what you wish me." And the other replies, giving tit for
two lewscome toexperience and what makes us laugh is indeed the radical
tat: "Sec, you're doing it again'" (PR, 1'}8).
impossibility of forgiveness.
An unfathomable Slory, :I. story that seems to stop in its tracks, A Jew, a Jew from time immemorial, and especially in this century,
who~ movement consists in interrupting itself, in paralyzing itself in Sarah knew this and lived it better than anyofus here, better in the worst of
order to refuse any future, an absolute Story of the unsolvable, It vcr· ways, for she was also someone who was pUI to the: test of the impossibility
tiginous depthlessness, an irresistible whirlwind that draws forgiveness, of forgiveness, its radical impossibility.
the gift, and the giving back of forgiveness right to the abyss of the Who, in fact, could give us the right to forgive? Who could g-j~e
impossible. whom the: right to forgive on behalfof the dead, and to forgive the infinite
How does one acquit oneself of forgiving? Mustn't forgiveness violence that was done to them, depriving them of both a grave and a
exclude all acquiual, all acquittal of oneself, of the other? To forgive is name, everywhere in the world and not only at AusdHvitz? And thus
certainly not to be: quits, Neither with oneself, nor with the other, That everywhere that the: unforgivable would h:lve taken place?
would be: to repeat the evil, to countersign or con~crate it. to let it be what I ... 1
it is, unalterable and identical to itself. No adequation is here appropriate And you know, I bet that this insurmountable limit-surmounted,
or tolerable. So what then? nonetheless, as insurmountahlc:, in the setting free of what is insuperable
186 CHJlI'TU IUV,,,,
in the unsurmounted---is inde«l the line mat our fWO Jews ha,'eCfossed- destined by God to be a guest (gir), an immigram, a foreign body in a
with or within the confession, though without repentance, of their re<:ip- foreign land ("Go from your country and your kindred and your father's
rocal accusation. To admit to, to share, to entrust to one another this house," "your offspring shall be guestS in a land that is not theirs"),-
insurmountable test of the unforgivable, to deem oneself unforgivable Presenting him.self as a foreigner who has no home, keeping watch o\'er
for not forgiving, is JXrhaps not to forgive-since forgiveness appears the body of the dead, hi.s dead, $:Irah (the woman who laughs when told
impossible, even whe.n it takes place--but it is to sympathize \.,rith the she is to ha\'e a child, and then pret'ends not to have laughed).' Abraham
other in this test of the impossible_ requests a place for her. A final dwelling, a final resting place. He wants to
Here it is, then-the ultimate compassion. be able to give her a burial place worthy of her, but alsoa place that would
It is to tell the other, or to hear oneself tell the other, and to hear the separate her from him, like death frolll life, a place "in front of me," says
other tell you: you 5(:e, you're doing it again, you don't want to forgive one translation, "out of my sight," says another." And for this--you know
me, even on the day of the Gre:n Atonement, but me too, me neither, a the scene-he wants to p.;ay, this husband ofSarah, the woman who laughs;
"me" neither, we're in agreement, we forgive ourselves for nothing, for he insists on it, he wants at all costs that this not be gi\'en to him. In fact,
that's impossible, so let's not forgive one another, all right? And then you Abraham had himself also laughed upon hearing the same news, the news
burst into complicitous, uncontrollable I.wghter, laughing like crazy, with of the belated birth of Isaac. (Yirk/rok: he laughs: Isaac, the coming of Isaac,
a laughter gone crazy. For isn't this paradoxical agreement peace? Yes, makes them both shake with laughter, one after the other; Isaac is the name
that's peace, that's life: that, in the end, is the great atonement. And what of the one who coma to make them laugh, to laugh about his coming. at
is more comical than the great atonement or forgiveness as the test of the his \'ery coming, as if laughter should greel a birth, the coming of:ll happy
unforgivable? What could be more alive, what better r«onciliation could e\'ent, a coming of laughter, a coming to laugh. come-Iaugh-with-me.)
there be? What an art of living! How to do otherwise, in fact, how to do The moment having come 10 laugh was also the momem when Elohim
beuer, as soon as we live, or live onr Without having chosen to do sor named Sarah. He gave her a new name, deciding that Abraham, who had
This reronciliation in thc impossiblc is the dcfinition of today. of a today, himself just received another name (changed from Abram to Abraham),
of life's repric\-e, would no longer c:r.11 her Sarai, my princess, but Sarah. princess." So what
But J want toimagincthat these two Jews in their infinitccompassion thenr Comm~1 s'etJ sorrir?-How to get OUI of thisr'~ To this question in
for one another, at the very moment when thcy conclude thaI they do not the form of an aporia, I know of no 5..1tisfying ;ln$wer. Not even crazed
know how to conclude, at the very moment when they recognize that they
cannot disarm, just as life itself never disarms, I want to believe that these &. GnJnu U:I, IPl> from T~ Nnuo.jiwJAJr_nri Brbk. cd. BNa M. Mm:ger:tnd
twO Jews have forgiven one another, but without telling one another. At Robnd E. Mu.phy (New York..: Word UnivcnilY Pn:u, 1991).
least they have spoken to one another, even jf they ha"en't said that they 9- When !Old about the coonUig of hue (ru,tA.>-t: hc: bugh,), Suah bughf and then
J"tt"n<b: noo lohavedone $00. But God bccomo indignant tlgt dlc might Ix doubting hi,
forgive one another. They have said to one another, in silence, a silence QTfInipoo.ell(e and oot'ltr:odicu her denial: MOh yn. you did laugh M(GnI6is 18:1':), Later
made up of tacit understanding, where misunderstanding can alwa)'s (:11:].6), at h.tK'5 birth, - Abr:oham Jlave the n:ome !.JUC lQ hi5 M)Il whom Sarah bore
find a place, that the forgiveness granted implies neither "'r«onciliation" him: IIAK-hc: will bught- Sar:oh ~1'- -God h:u brought bughler f()f' me; cv«y0llC
(Hegel) nor "the work itself," "the profound work" of di.scontinuous time, who Mar, will laugh with me..-
10. ~ aJ:.4_ .....
a time that is delivered or that delivers us from continuity through the
II. GnJnu 17:15, I,.
interruption of the other, with a view to the "messianic triumph" "s«ured
Ia. Sal1lh Korman, Commt'llt I'~ "",;,7 (Pari,; Galilk, 19f!j); p;irn Ofth'5 book 19"e been
against the revenge of evil" (Levinas).7 lranslucd under th" ritle "Beyond Aporia?M by David Macey inPon-strlKtlO1fIliJt Cliutia,
[ ... I cd. And",,,,,, Iknj.amin (New York: Roul1cdge, tlJS8), 'l-+t- This tUI, a short tratite
At what moment does Abraham reawaken the memory of his being- on the apo.ia, oprns and c~ wilh a quoce from Blanchoc', M""--cftlw- fNy, lr:uu.
foreign in a foreign land? For Abraham does indt:'ed recall that he is "-"" Qua>ha (BarrytOWn, N.Y.: Station Hill Prca. 1981), T- MMrn .....nt 10daPC
death, Mr:onge bclDg5 that they ar~ And.some: olthcm oy out '0.." d",' bcn...,., they
wapt to ~pc from hfe. 'What a lire. I'll kill m)'Klf.l1ll1,ve in.' Thill5 bfMnt:oblc: and
,. Emmanuel uvina~, TOIlllirylloullnfi"ity, lr:on5. AlphonKO L.i.Pgi, (Pithburgh: Duqunne mange: it 15 I m,stak". Yet I have met people who have never Wlid 10 lore, 'Qu,etl,' who
M
University P.6$, 1969), 'l8j, aSs. have ne:ver Wlid tn dnlh, 'Co away!' AIUlO$l :l1w..,.. women, beautiful crcalu'd.
188 eltAPTI..IH.KVIIN
.....-=0-.----
laughter. Nothing is given in advance for an actofforgiveness, no rule, no
criterion, no norm. It is the chaos.at the origin oftht': world. The .abyss of CHAPTER 12
this nonanswer or non response would be the condition of responsibility-
decision and forgivcness, the decision to forgive without any concept, if
there ever is any. And always (in) the name of the other.
(LaSt vertigo, last sigh: to forgive lin] the name of the other-is this GILLES DELEUZE
only to forgive in their place, for the other, in substitution? Or is it to forgive
the other their name, to forgive what is in their name, what survives the JANUARY 18. 1925-NoY£UH£R 4. 1995
rorpH, to forgive the name of the other as their first wrongdoing?)
The answer must each time be invented, Singular, signed, .and each
time only one time like Ihe gifl ofa work,a giving ofart and of life, unique
and. right up until the end of the world, pl.a)'ed back.
Given back. To the impossible, I mean right up to the impossible.
This is what Sarah Kofman gi\'cs me [0 think about t<KIay, in the over-
Rowing of memory. there where she remains for me unique, and where J
want to bdie\'e that this reaffinnation of life was hers, right up 10 when
the time came. to when it became time, right up to the end.
,8,
During this time he formed dose friendships with Fran~ois Chate:let, (19n), Dcleuu speaks of his Jong~standing love for Anglo·American
Miche.l Butor, Pierre KlossoW5ki, and Claude and jacques Lanzmann. literature (in particular, Mdville., Fitzgerald. and Lewis Carroll).
In 1947 he received a dipl6me d'ittlda mpbietlres for a project on Hume In the I~ Deleuze wrote a number of important books on me
supervised by Hippolyte and Canguilhem; this later became his first book, visual arts, among ,hem Francis Bacon: Logiqtle de Jo sensation (19S1)
Empiricism ami Subjectivity, published in 1953. and two volumes on cinema, Vimage-moutJemfflt (1983) and L'image-
After his stUdies at the Sorbonne, Deleuze t3ughtat Iycees in Amiens tm/pi (1985). A great admire.r of thc films of Godard, Deleuu was also
(194~:l) and Orleans (1953-55) before mO\'ing back to Paris to teach at associated with the Cahin-s du einlma. In 1986 he wrOte a book devoted
the Lyc~ Louis~le~Grand. He then became mailre-assinanr in 1957 in the to, and in memory of, Foucault. A book on Leibniz :md the barCXJue,
history of philosophy at the Sorbonne, where he St2yed until 1900. In The Fold, appeared two yearsl31er, followed by a collection of interviews,
1956 he married (Denise Paul) "Fanny~ Grandjouan, one of the French Negotiations (1990). His last book, Critique et c/inique, a s,eries of essays
translators of D. H. Lawrence. They had two children, Julien, born in on phiJosophy and literature, W3S published in 1993' His inRue.nce on the
1900,3nd Emile, in 1¢4. history of philosophy (with works on the Stoics, SpinoZ.:l, Leibniz, Humc,
From l¢o to 1964 Deleuze was attach! de rec;'erches at the Centre Kant, Nictzsche, and Bergson, among others), art and literary criticism
National de la Recherche Scie.ntifique. It was during this time that he met (his 1964 book on Proust ~coming an authoritative tcxt in the field),
Michd Foucault, with whom he would havea long inte.llectual friendship. psychoanalysis, and film studies continues to grow in English~speaking
His influential text Nietzsde and P;'i/osoplly was published in 1962. From countries, where the majority of his works have been mlnslate.d.
1¢.4 to 1¢9 Dc:leu.z.e taught at the University ofL)'on. Histh~dedoaorot By 1993 Deleuzc: suffered so badly from the pulmonary condition
d'bat, Differencr and Repetition (supervised by de Gandillac), and the that had plagued him for many years that il became difficult for him
accompanying secondary thesis, Spinoza and tht' Problem of Expression to write and even to socialize with friends. He took his own life on
(supervised by Alquie), were both published in I¢S. His pulmonary November 4,1995.
problems, which led to a lung operation in 1970, also date from this same
period. In 1m he became a professor of philosophy at the University of
Paris Vlfl (initially at Vincennes, and then latet at the new campusat Saint
Denis), where he remained until his tetireme.nt in 1987.
In the early 19']OS Dc:leuu became involved in various political
activities, due in part to his friendship with Felix Guauari, whom he
had met in 1969. He lent his support 10 a number of political groups
and organizations, among Ihem CIP (Groupe d'information sur les pris-
ons), formed by Foucault and Danid Defen, FHAR (a movement for
homosexual rights), the Maoists,lhe Italian autonomy movement, and the
Palestinian liberation movement. Anti...(NdipUJ, published in 19P> was the
,
first fruit of Dcleuu's collaboration with Cuattari. The tWO wrote four
more books together: Kaf1r!1 (1975), Rhizome (1976),A TlJollkl"d PJaualls
(1980), and What Is PhiIQSop;'y? (1991). (Guattari died on August 29, '992,
at the age of 62.)
During most of the 197°S Deleuze spent his time leaching and
writing, traveling rarely and making ...·cry few media appearances. He
participated in the '972 Ce.risy collCXJuium on Nietzsche, alongside jean-
Fr.IO~ois L)'Otard, Klossowski, and Dcrrida, and oversaw, with the help
of Foucault, lhc cranslation of the Colli-Montinari edition of Nietzschc's
works into French. In a book ofinte.rviews with Ci:lire Pamet, Dialogua
j'M GOING TO HAVE TO WANDER ALL ALONE opposition, a difference "morc profound" than a contradiction (Differnlc~
and R~tilion), a difference in the joyously repeated affirmation ("yes,
So much to say, and' don't have the heart for it today. So much to say yes"), a taking into account of the simulacrum-Deleuu undoub13.bly
about what has happened to us, about what has hap~ned to me too, with still remains, despite so many dissimilarities, the one among all those of
the de:lth of Gilles Delc:uz.e; so much to say about what h.. ppens with a my "generation" to whom I have always considered my~lf closest. 1 have
death th..t W:1S undoubtedly feared-we knew he was very ilI--but yet never felt the slightest "objection" arising in me, not even potentially,
so much to S.1Y about what happens with this death, this unimaginable against any of his works, even if I happened to grumble a bit about one
image, which, if it were possible, would hollow out wirnin the t:vent the or another of the propositions found in Ami-OeJipus (I told him this one
sad infinity of yt:t anotht:r event. More rnan anything dse, Deleuzc the day while we were driving back together from Nanterre, after a thtsis
thinker is the thinker of the event and always of this event in particular. defense on Spinoza), or perhaps about the idea that philosophy consists in
From beginning to end, he remained a thinker of this event. I reread "creating" concepu, One day, , would like to try to provide an account
what he $:lid concerning the event, already in 1969, in ant: of his greatest of such an agreement in rcgard to philosophic "content," when this same
books, Th~ Logic of Sn!H. He quotes Joe Bousquet, who says, "For my agreement never does away with all those devi2tions that I, still today,
inclination [Oward death, which was a failureofme will, I shall substitute do not know how to name or situate. (DeIeuze had agreed to publish at
a longing for dying which is the apotheosis of the will." Deleu7.c then some point a long, improvised discussion between us on this topic, but
adds, "From this inclination to this longing there is, in a certain respect, then we had to wait, to wait too long.) I only know that these differences
no change except a change of the will, .. sort of leap in place by the whole never left room for anything between us but friendship. There: was never
body, which exchanges its organic will for a spiritual will. It wills now any shadow, any sign, as far as I know, that might indicate the contrary.
not exactly what occurs, but something in whatoccurt, something to come This is rather rare in our milieu, so rare that I wam it to go on r«ord
that conforms to what occurs, in accordance with the laws of an obscure. right here. This friendship was not based merely on the f.1ct-;md this
humorous conformity: the Event. It is in this sense that Amor fati is one is not insignifieant-that we had the 53me enemies. It's true, we didn't
with the struggle of free men.'" (One could go on quoting endlessly.) see each other very often. esp«ially in the last years. But ( still hear the
So much to say, yes, about the time that was allotted to me, as to laughter of his voice, which was a litde raspy, saying to me so many
so many otht:rs of my "gcnt:ration," to share with Ddeuzc, so much to things (like to recall exactly as he said them. He whispered to me, "Best
say about the chance to think. thanks to him, by think,ing about him. wishes, all my best wishes," with a sweet irony b:lck in the summer of
From the very beginning, all of his books (but first of all Niet'=iChe and 1955 in the courtyard of the Sorbonne as I was in the process offailing the
Philorophy, Diffiunce and R~lition, TN Logic of Sente) have been for examinations for the agrlgation. Or with a concern like that of an older
me noc only, of cour~. strong provocations 10 think but each time the brother: "II pains me to sec you put so much time into this institution (the
Aust'ering, really flustering, experience of a closeness or of a nCdrly to(31 CoII~ge International de Philosophiel,' would prefer that you write." And
affinity concerning the "theses," if we can usc this word, across very I r«"all so many other moments, among them the memorable ten d:lys at
obvious distances, in what I would call-lacking any better term-the the Niettsc.he conference at Cerisy in 1972, which make me f~I, along
"gesture," the ~strategy," the "manner" of writing, of s~aking, of reading with Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard, no doubt (who was also there at Cerisy), so
perhaps. As regards these "thcscs"--but the word doesn't fit-n0t3bly alone.surYiving:lOd so melancholy uxby in what we call with that terrible
the one concerning an irreducible difference in opposition to dialectical and somewhat misleading word a "generation." Each death is unique, of
course, and therefore unusual. But what c:tn be said about the unusual
when, from Barthcs to Ahhusscr, from Foucault to Deleuz.e, it multiplies,
Reprun«l, Wllh choingn. from Mrm Goong to H;lI\c 10 W:lnck, All AJ.onc.M uaJUbtcd by
as in a series. all these uncommon ends in the same "generation"? And
~fd La,,'k •• p",1oIopItr Todq 41., no. I (..prin,lWS): J-s. Rut F.-md\ pu.bliation. Mil me
f.. udr:> crrcr lOUt IlCUI. LM'1II0", No~~bc:. ;. 'm
M Deleuu was also the philosopher of serial singularity.
Yes, we will have all loved philosophy, who can deny it? But, i[ is
I. Gilla Dekuu.u.Iot!"I'''' Ju~", O'uiJ.: Minu;t, '969). I,.: Engl;lh translnion, TM
truc-he said it-Dcleuze was the one among all of this "generation"
f..og>rof$nlr. rd. Connanlin V. l~lnd:». t ..~"s. Marie Lc,.ter wllh Cha,le\ Sf.iv.k:(New
York: CQlumbi;. UniversilY P,a.s. 19')0). 1'J9. who "was doing" philosophy the most gaily, the most innocently. 'don't
194 CH ... .,..... TWELVl CILL. . DllLlun '95
think he would have liked me using Ihe word Mthinker" earlier. He would in two different ways, perhaps, but 00th of w. You sec. we think any
have preferred "philosopher." In this regard. he once described himsdf political philosophy mUSlturn on the analysis of capitalism and the ways
as "the mOSl innocent (thc one who fclt the leasl guilt about 'doing it has developed. What we find most interesting in Marx is his analysis of
philosophy')."~ Undoubtedly. this was the neccssary condition in order capitalism as an immanent systcm that is constantly overcoming its own
to leave on the philosophy of this century the deep and incomparable limitations, and then coming up against them once more in a broader
mark that will always be his. The mark of a great philosopher and of a form. because its fundamental limit is Capital itself.'"
great professor. This historian of philosophy, who conducted a kind of I am going to continue-<:tr begin aga.in-to read Gilles Ddeuu in
configural election of his own genealogy (the Stoics, Lucretiw, Spinoza, order to learn. and I'm going to have to wander all alone in that long
Humc:, Kant, lietzsehe. Bergson. etc,), was also an inventor of philosophy discussion that we should have had together. , think my first question
who never endosed himself within some philosophic "field"-he wrote would have concerned Artaud. Deleuzc's interpretation of the "body
on painting, cinema, and literature. Bacon. Lewis Carroll, Proust, Kafka, without organs,~ and the word "immanence." which hc always held on
Melville. and .so on. to, in order to make him or let him say something that is still for us
I also want to say nght herr [in Libtrarionl that I loved and admired undoubtedly secret. And I would have tried to say to him why his thought
the way-which was always just right-he treated images, newspapers, has never left me for nearly fony years. How could it do so now?
tele...ision. the whole public sphere and the transformations it has un·
dergone in recent decades. All with economy and a ...igilant retreat. I
felt in complete agreement with what he was doing and saying in this
regard. for example. in an interview for Libbarion (October :13, 19&> on
the occasion of the publication of A Thousona Plar~aUJ (in the vein of his
197'1 Dialogu~J).J He said: "h is necessary to come to understand what is
really going on in the field ofbooks. We've been going through a period of
reaction in all fields for seveul years. There's no reason for il not to ha,·e
affected books. People are setting up a literary space. along with a legal
space. and an economic and political space, that's completely reacbon:try,
artificial, and crippling. I think it's a systematic process. which Libbation
should have investigated." It is "far worse than censorship," he added; but
,
"this sterile phase won'l necess.'trily go on indefinitely.". Perhaps. perhaps.
Like Nietzsche and like Artaud, like Blanchot, others wbom we both
admired, Deleuze nevcr lost sight of this connection of ncc:cssity with tbe
aleatory, chaos. and the untimely. When I was writing on Marx. at the very
worst moment, in 1992, I was somewhat reassured to find out that Deleuu
intended to do the same thing. And' reread this evening WMt he said in
19900n this subjcct: "'think Felix Guattari and I have remained ~1arxists.
EMMANUEL LEVINAS
JANUARY 12, 1906-D£c£MBER 25, 1995
ADIEU adieu, to him, Emmanuel, and not merely w recall what he first taught us
about a ct"rtain Adi~u.
For a long time. for a very long time, I've feared having to.say Adieu to This word droiwT~-"straightforwardness" or "uprightness"--is an*
Emmanuel uvinas. other word that I began to hC<lr otherwise and to learn when it came to me
I knew that my voice would tremble at me
moment of saying it, from Emmanuel Levinas. Ofall the places where he spcaksof uprightncss,
and especially saying it aloud, right here, before him, so close to him, what first comes to mind is one of his "Four Talmudic Readings," where
pronouncing this word of adit:u, this word tI~Djt:u. which, in a certain uprightness names what is, as he says. "slrongt=r th:1n death,'"
sense, I gel from him, :t word that he will have taught me to think or to But let us 31.50 keep from trying to find in everything thai is So1id
pronounce otherwise. to be "stronger than de:1th" a refuge or an alibi, yet another oonsolation.
By meditating upon what Emmanuel Levinas wrote about the To define uprightness. Emmanuel Levinas says, in his commentary on the
French word adieu-which I will recall in a few momcnu-I hope to Tractate Shabbath, thai consciousness is
find a son ofencouragement to speak here. And I would like to do so with
the utgency of a destination leading to the Other and not an eternal
unadorned. naked words, words as childlike and disarmed as my sorrow.
return to self ..• an innocence without nai"ete, an uprightness
Whom is onc addressing at such a moment? And in Wh05C name
without stupidity. 20 absolute uprightness which is also absolute
would onc allow onesdfto do so? Often those who come forward to speak,
sdf-<r1tici.s-m. r~d in theeresorthe onc who i.s- the goal of my
to speak publicly, thcrc:by interrupting the animated whispering, the s«ret
uprigtuness and who.s-e look calls me intoqucstion, It i.s- a mO\'ement
or imimate exchangc that alwa)'s linksone,deep inside, to a dead friend or
tow.ud the Olher th.:u does not come back. w it! point oforigin the
master, those: who make themselves heard in a cemctery,end up addressing way diversion comes b3ck. incapable as it is of tIansccndence-a
dir«t/y, JlrrJiglu on, the one who. as W(' say, is no longer, is no longer living, move:menr lxyond anxiety and Stronger than de3lh. This upright.
no longer there, who will no longer respond. With tears in their voices,
ness is called Tmllmul, the csscnce of Jacob, (NTR, 48)
they sometimes speak familiarly to the other who keeps silent, calling upon
him without detour or mediation, apoSltophizing him, even greeting him This same meditation 31$0 sets 10 work-as each meditation did.
or confiding in him. This is not necessarily out of respect for convention, though C<1ch in a singular way-aillhe great themes to which tile thought
not always simply part of the rhetoric of oration. 11 is rather 50 as to of Ernmanuell....evinas has awakened us, that of responsibility first of all,
traverse speech at the very point where words fail us, since all language butofan "unlimited" responsibility that exceeds and prttedes tny fr(:(:dom,
that would return to the self, 10 us, would seem indecent, a reAexi\'e that of an ~uncondition31 }'es," aSlhis text says, of a ~~s older than that of
discourse that would end up coming back to the stricken community, naive spontaneity," a yes in accord wilh this uprightness that is "original
to iLS consol:llion or its mourning, to what is called, in a conf~ and fidelity to an indissoluble alliance" (NTR, 4MO). And the final words
terrible expression, '"the work of mourning." Concerned only with itself. of this Lesson relurn, of course, to death, but they do so pr«.isely so as
such speech would, in this return, risk turning away from what is here not to let death h;we the 13st word, or the firsl one. They remind us of 3
our law-the law as nraightfol'wardn('jS or uprighln~ss IdroiluI'el; to speak recurrent theme in what was a long and incessant meditation upon death,
straight on, 10 address oneself directly 10 the other, and to speak lor the but one thai sel OUt on a path that ran counter [0 the philosophical tradition
other whom one loves and admires, before speakingol him. To say to him extending from Plato to Heidegger. Elsewhere, before So1ying what theQ*
Di~tI must be.another text speaks of Ihe "extr(;tlle uprightness ofthe. face of
the neighbor" as the "uprightnt=ss of an eXjX!$ure 10 death, with defense.'"
This lexl W2S ddivell'd allhe: l'unelal OUIKtn for Ernnlanud Levinai' on lXcembet 25. 1995, I. Emmanuel Le~ilUol. ~F'OUI T:olml>die Readmgs. ~ in N",~ TII/",""1I: RaUH.gJ. lr:ln~.
Il.qnimcd, "'uh chan~ from ~Adicu.~ IramblcU by Pascale.Anne. Brauh and M~ Naas, AnnC:l1c ArOfl(Wo'1CZ (BlQOfnlOglon: Jnd",~ Uni~n.il)' J't~. 1990),48 (hcrn(ICI
Crint-r:.II""..,,,, aj. 00, I (auromn 1996):<lnd in Pltilosop4, Toby. faU '9¢.. RqNblilhcd in Ai_ :obb~vulcU n NTH).
ID u..-,,_I Ln...1ffU., by JxqllC' J::krrlda (Stanford: Sanford Univcul1J Press. 1999). I-Ij. :a. Emmanuel LnUla>., ~Ibd Cocucicnoa: and lhe: Ilk'lWnbie. ~ 'n Fila tI/J FII« limA um....
First French pubhcalioIl.A.i"-':A EM".."wI LhJi_ (puis: CallI«. 1997). 11_~. ed.. Rochald A. Cohen (Alban)'. N. Y.: SUNY Pteu. .9&6). j8. Thl' aP)' is ind..dcd
.lIO.ll CH... PTr;1l THIIlTU.N
I C;:iInnot, nor would I c:\'en try to, measure in a few words the idolatry of place, was. of COUtSC, indissociable from an incessant reflection
oeu\'re ofEmmanud Levinas.lt is 50 large that one an no longer glimpse upon the destiny and thought of Israd: yesterday, today, and tomorrow,
iu edges. And one would have: to begin by learning once again from Such reRection consisted of requestioning and reaffirming the legacies not
him and from Totality and Infinity, for example, how to think what an on I)' of the biblical and talmudic tradition but of the terrifying mcmory
"oeuvre" or "work"-as well as fecundity-might be. One can predict of our time. This memory dictates each of these sentences, whether from
with confidence that centuries of readings will set this as their task. We nearby or afar, even if Levinas would sometimes prOtest against certain
already see innumerable signs, well beyond France: and Europe, in.so many self-justifying ab~ to which such a memory and the reference to the
works and so many languages, in all the translations. courses, seminars, Holocaust might give rise.
conferences, and so on, that the re\·erberations of this thought will have But refraining from commentaries and questions, I would simpl)'
changed the course of philosophical reRection in our time, and of our like to give thanks to someone whose thought, friendship, trUSt, and
reflenion on philosophy, on what orders it according to ethics, another "goodness" (and I ascribe to this word "goodness" all the significance it is
thought of ethics, responsibility, justice, Ihe State, and so on, according given in the final pages of Totality and Infinity) will have been for me, as
to another Ihought of the other, a thought that is newer than so many for so many others, a living source,.so living, so constant, that I am unable
novelties because it is ordered according to the absolute anteriority of the to think what is happening to him or happening to me today, namely, this
face of the Other. interruption or a certain non-response in a response that will never come
Yes, ethics before and beyond ontology, the State. or politics, but also to an e:nd for me as long as I live.
ethics beyond ethics. One day, on the rue Michel Ange, during one ofthose: The non-re:sponse: )'ou will no doubt recall that in the remarkable
conversations whose memory I hold so dear, one of those conversations course Emmanuel Levinas gave in 1975-';6 (ex3ct.ly IWe:nty years :ago),
illuminated by the radiance of his thought, the goodness of his smile, "La mort et Ie temps"'Death and time!,4 where he defines death as the
the gracious humor of his ellipses, he said to me: "You know, onc often p.'uience of time, and engages in a grand and noble critical encounter with
speaks of ethics to describe: what I do, but what really interests me in the Plato as much as with Hegel, but especially with Hcidegger, death is often
end is not ethics, nOI ethics alone, but the holy, the holiness of the holy." defined-the death that "we mttt" "in the face of thc Othe:r"-:&s non-
And I then thought of a singular separation, the unique separation of l'af'OnH; "it is the without-responsc" (DAIT. 20), he sa)'s. And elsewhere:
the curtain or \'eil that is given, ordered and ordained Idonne. ardonn/l, "There is here an end that always h:as the ambiguity of:& departure without
by God, the veil entrusted by Moses to an inventor or an artist rather return, of a passing awa)' but also ofa scandal ('is it really possible that he's
than to an embroiderer, the veil that would separau the holy of holies dead?') of non-response and of m)' responsibility'· (DAIT. 47)·
in the sanctuary, And I also thought of ho..... other Talmudic "LeSJOns~ Death: not, first of all, annihilation, non-being, or nothingness, but
sharpen the necessary distinction between sacredness and holiness, that is, a certain experience for the survivor of the "without-response. Already M
the holiness of the other, the holiness of the person, who is, 3S Emmanuel Tota/ilyund Infinity called into question the traditional "philosophical and
Levinas said elsewhere, '"more holy than a land, e\'en when that land is 3 religious" interpretation of death as either "a passage to nothingness" or
hoi)' land. Next to a person who has been alTronted, this land-holy and '"a passage 10 some othe:r existence."s It is the murderer who would like
promised-is but nakedness and desert, a heap of wood and stone.~' to identify death wilh nothingness; Cain, for example, sa)'s Emmanuel
This meditation on ethics, on the transcendence of the holy with uvinas, "must have possessed .such a knowledge of death." But even this
regard to the sacred, thaI is, with rel,rard to the p3ganism of roots and the nothingness presents itself as a "sort of impossibility" or, more precisely,
4" '"hil i. one of two courlCl Lc.. itw l:Iughl :lllhe Sorbon"" (Pui, IV) during 'm-?6-11
as the, "lUI tn:tion of~l..a ronKimcx non'lnltnlionndle,~In En," _ : Emt,lll" k won fir$! published in 1991 uDlk.!he utlc·u fI\Ott «Ie lCmp'w II> £"0_,._1£..,,,,-.
~__ ~."'" (p:&fiJ: Gr~ '9')1) (twrc.lO(tel:lbbrO',nfd 2S BC). Parl$ ~hlCn de: I'Hernc. no. 60. ~'-7S0 and !hen ,n 1993 (wilh !he otha counc (rom
J. See Ln<i~'1 prd:lQr co MJlrlb>c Zar~r. Ht,*""n ks/"Pf1ln.rO"lf'~(PanI.; Von. tbt Qffi" )'Ur•• o.a, CI l'onto-Ibto-Iogk'"l in Lev,on, Dvw. £r.-, a k IntIJI1 {PUll:
1986). ';l-'j..ISee.abo tbt 1n1UYX'W WIth Schlomo ~blk:a publi.ned In Ln _ _.... Gr:II~. 199Y (he:f"~(Ic:r abbr""ufW u DMT).
nJucn IS (19l!:a.-$3): ;'. '-& l12nsl:llcd by Jonadun Rum1M:)' in T""'-IMI ~ td. 50 Emnanud Lui","". T_J.ry_. ,,,jutrly:,A,, ~(OI/ ~." Ir:IIN- A.IJl1-uo ungos
Scin Hand (Cambndg". M:l1$..: ~t.>l Blxln,/e11, 1989), ~,_T,.,ou.1 (Pinlburgh: Duqunnc: UnivcU,ty Pr",,, 1969).1j3 (herc;a(I"r :lbbr"""'led:l' Tn.
an interdictiOll. The face of the Other forbids me to kill; it says to me, ofsubstitution and 5;lcrifi('e.1 The Other individuates me in my
"thOli shall not kill," even if this possibility remains presupposed by the responsibiliry for him. The death of thc Other affects me in my very
interdiction thar makes it impossible. This question without response, this identity as a rcsponsible I ... made up of unspe.1kable reslXlnsi~
question of the without-response, would thus be underivable, primordial, bility. This is how I am affected by the death of me Other. this is
like the interdiction against killing, more originary than the altern:l.liveof my relation to his dcath. It is, in my rchltion, my defcrencc toward
"to be or nOt to be." which is thus neither the first nor the last question. someone who no longer rcsponds, already a guilt of the survivor.
"To be or not to be," another essay condudes, "is probably not the question (DAfT, 21; quot3tlOnS in brackets. 31, (99)
par excellence" (BC, 40).
Today, I draw from all this that our infinite sadness must shy away And a bit further on:
from everything in mourning that would turn toward nothingness, that
is, toward Wh:ll slill, even potentially, would link guilt to murder. Levinas TIle relation 10 death in its e}t.ception-and, regardless of its sig-
ind«d speaks of the survivor's guilt, but it is a guilt without f.1ult and nification in relation w hcing and nothingness. it is an c.xception-
without debt; it is, in truth, an entntS~d rt'spo1l5ibiliry, entrusted in a while conferring upon demh its deplh. is neither a seeing nor even
moment of unparalleled elllotion, at dle moment when death remains an ;limin!; toward (neither a sec:ing of being as in PllltO nor an
the absohlle ex-cepnon. To express this unprecedented emotion, the one I aiming toward nothingness 3S in Heidegger),a purely emotional
fcel here and share with you, the one that our sense of propriety forbids us relation. moving with an emotion th::tl is not made upofthe reper-
to exhibit, so as to make clear without personal avowal or exhibition how cussionsof:l prior knowledge upon our sensibility and our imellecL
this singular emotion is related to this entrusted responsibility, entrusted It is an emotion, a movement, all uneasiness with reb"::lrd to the
3S legacy, allow me once again to let Emm:muel Levinas speak, him whose unknown. (DM1; 25-26)
voice I would so much love to hear today when it says th:1t the "death
of the other" is the "first death:· and that ·;1 am responsible for the other The "unknown" is emphasized here. The "unknown" is nOf the
insofar as he is mortal." Or else the following, from this s:une course of negative limit of a knowledge. This non~knowledge is the element of
'975-76, friendship or hospit.1lity for the transcendence of the stranger, the infinite
distance of the other. "Unknown" is also the word chosen by Maurice
The death of sor,neone is not, despite what it might h:lve :Ippe;.lred Blanchot for the title of an essay, "Knowledge of the Unknown," which
10 be at first glance. an empiric:ll facticity (de:lth 35 an empirical he devored to the one who had been, from the time of their meeting in
fact whose induction alone could suggest its universality); it is not Strasoourg in f923, a fricnd, the very friendship of the friend.
c.xluusted in such an appearance. For many among us, no doubt. cert.1inly for myself, the absolute
Somc:one who expresses himself in his n;tke.dneu-the face-- fidelity, the exemplary friendship of thought, thefrietltuhip between Mau~
is in fact one to the extent that he calls upon me, tb the extem that rice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas, was a grace, a gift; it remains a
he places himself under my responsibility: I must already answer benediction of our time and, for more reasons than one, a good fortune
for him. be responsible for him. Every gesture of the Other was a that is also a blessing for those who have had the great privilege of being
si~n addressed to me. To return to the classification sketched out the friend ofeither of them. In order to hear once again today, right here,
above: to show one$Clf, to e}tpress oneself, to associate oneself, 10 Blanchot speak for Levinas, and with Levinas, as I had the good fortune
be I!l1lntSlt:d Jf) m~. The Other who expresses himself is entrusted to do when in their company one day in 1968, I will cite a couple oflincs.
to me (and there is no debt with tegard to the Other-for what is After having named what in the other "ravishcs" us, after having spoken
due cannOt be paid: one will ne\'cr be even). fFunheron it will be of a certain "rapture" (the word often used by Levinas to speak of death),
a question of a ·'duty beyond all debl·' for the 1 who is what it is, Bl:mchot says:
singular and identifiable. only through fhe impossibility of being
replaced. even though it is precisely here that the "re.sPQnsihility But we must nol despair of philosophy. In Emmanuel Levinas's
for the Other," the "responsibility of the hostage," is ao experience hook ITo/ality and InfinityJ-where, it seems to me. philosophy in
206 CHAPTI1II TIl'l\TtRN ltt.lMANUIL Ll!V'NA~ 207
our dnle has never spoken in a more sober manner, pUlling bAck to the completely other (that is, to justice, as he says somewhere in a
imoque:ition, as we must, our ways of thinking and even our facile powerful and formidable ellipsis: the relation to the other, that is to say,
reverence for ontolo~,'y-we arc called upon to become responsible justice), according to the law that thus calls us to yield to the other infinite
for wh3t philosophy essentially is, by welcoming, in all the radiance precedence of the completely other.
and infinite exigency proper to it, the idea of the Other, that is to It will have come, like this call, to disturb, discreetly but irreversibly,
say, the rel:uion with Qllrrui. It is as though there were here a new the most powerful and established thoughls of the end of this millen-
departure in philosophy and a leap that it, and we ourselltes, were nium, beginning with those of Husser! and Heidegger, whom Levinas
urged to accomplish.' introduced into France some sixty-five years ago! {ndeed, this country,
whose hospitality he so loved (and Totalityafld Infinity shows not only that
If the relation to the mher presupposes an infinite separation, an "the essence of language is goodnes..o;" but that "the essence of language
infinite interruption where the face appears, what happens, where and is friendship and hospit.'llity'· fTI, 305]), this hospiroblt: France, owes
to whom does it h3ppen, when another interruption comes at death to him, among so many other things, among so many other significant
hollow out even more infinitely this hrnseparation,:I rending interruption contributions, at le;tst two irruptive events of thought, two in.1ugurnl acts
at the heart of interruption itself? I cannot speak of interruption without that are difficult to me,'uure today because they have been incorporated into
recalling, like many among you, no doubt, the anxiety of interruption 1 the very dement ofour philosophical culture, after having transformed ilS
could feel in Emmanuel Levinas when, on the telephone, for example, landscape.
he seemed at each moment to fear being cut off, to fear the silence Or First, to say it all too quickly, beginning in 1930 with translations
disappearance, the "without response,·' of the other, to whom he called and interpretative readings, there was the initial introduction of Husser~
out and held on with an "allo, allo" between sentences, sometimes even in Han phenomenology, which would feed and fecundale so many French
midsentence. philosophical currents. Then-in truth, simultaneously-there was the
What happens when a great thinker becomes silem, one whom introduction of Heideggerian thought, which was no less important in
we knew living, whom we read and reread, and also heard, one from the genealogy of so many French philosophers, professors, and students.
whom we were still awaiting a response, as if such a response would Husser! and Heidegger at the smne time, beginning in 1930. I wanted
help us not only to think Otherwise but also 10 read what we thought last night to reread a few p.1ges from this prodigious book, which was
we had already read under his signature, a response that held everything for me, as for many others before me, the first and best guide. I picked
in reserve, and so much mOre than what we thought we had already OUt a few sentences that have made their mark in time and that allow us
recognized there? This is an experience that, as I have learned, would to measure the distance he will have hdpcd us cover. In t930, a young
remain for me interminable with Emmanuel Levinas, as with all thoughts man of twenty~threesaid in the pref.1cc that J reread, smiling, smiling .'It
that are sources, for I will never stop beginning or beginning anew to him: "The fact that in France phenomenology is not a doctrine known
think with them on the oosis of rhe new beginning they give me, and I to e.veryone has been a constant problem in the writing of this book.'"
will begin again and again to rediscover them on just about any subject. Or again, speaking of the so very "powerful and original philosophy" of
Each time I read or reread Emmanuel Levinas, I am overwhelmed with ·'Mr. Manin Heidegger, whose. influence on this book will often be felt,"
gratitude and admiration, overwhelmed by this necessity, which is not the same book also recalls that "the problem raised here by transcendental
a constraint but a very gentle force that obligates, and obligates us not
to bend or curve otherwise the space of thought in its respect for the
other, but to yielel to this olher, heteronomous curvature that relates us 7. Emm3nucl l..cvinas.LA Mione de /"inluitian duns 14 pMnomtoolagit' de Husserl (p"ri):
Vrin. 1963). :r. Eogli5h It:mdat;on, TM TIIrory of /..,ui,wn in HIWrrl', Plon>arnmo/Qgy.
:Jd cd., Irans. AndrE Orianne (EV305ton: Norrnwesu:rn University Pnu, 1995). (As the
6. Thi~ 15 l\l:Iurice Blanehol:'$ lellt MKMwledge of the UnkMwn. fim publi~hed in u
M
translator ROles (x.lbt), l..cvi~s's short pref3ce or IlllQ"'-propar. from which the above
JW.. ~/k mJII~fra>J(Q~, 00. ,OB (t¢I): loBl-9S, then 3gain in l.'fflm,ino ;nft,,; (P"ri$: quou: was IOlkco, Wlll omilted from the translalion and replaced by the trantlatori
G"Uim"rd, 1¢i9), 70-83. JCl' )\;1<'ur;ce BlanchOl, Tit< Infini'" Ca/Ot't'>'S/lriQl1, tr;lns. SU$;ln foreword 100 'II W provkte a soeries: of ~hi.torical remark. lllOre lpecifically dilCCted to
Hanson (Minneapolis; University of Minnesota P,e~~, 1993>, 51;2. loday') Engli~h reader.·_T"""s.j
ILMNA~Ulll. J.e.... IN~J :J09
phenomenology is an ontological problem in the very precise sense that at the "ery moment when it was moving away from him, Le.vinas wrote:
Heidegger gives to this term," "It distinguishes itsclffrom Heidegger's thought. and it docs so in spite of
The second event, the second philosophical tremor, I would even the debl that every contemporary thinker owes to Heidegger-a debt that
say the happy traumatism that we owe him (in the se.nse of the word one often regrets" (DMT. 16). The good foTtune of our debt to u:vinas is
"traumatism" that he liked to recall, the "traumatism of the other" that that we can, thanks to him, assume it and affirm it without regret, in the
coma from {he Other), is that, whiledOS(:ly re::!ding and reinterpreting the joyous innocence of admiration. It is of the order of the unconditional 'P$
thinkers I just mentioned, but so many others as well. both philosophers of which I spoke earlier, and to which it responds, "y~." The regrel, my
such as Dcscanes, Kant,and Kierkegaardand writers such as Dostoyevsky, regret, is not having said this to him enough, not having shown him this
Kafka, and Proust--allthe whiJe disseminating his words through publi· enough in the course of these thirty years, during which, in the modesty
cations, teaching, and lectures (at the Ecole Normale Isra~lite Orientale, at of silences, through brief or discreet conversations, writings too indirect
the College Philosophique, and at the Universities of Poitiers, Nanterre, or reserved, we often addressed to one another wh:n I would call neither
and the Sorbonne}-Emmanuel Levinas slowly displaced, slowly bent questions nor answers but, perhaps. to use another one of his words, a son
according to an inflexible and simple exigency, the axis, trajectory, and of"question, prayer," a qucstion-praye.r that, as he says, would be anterior
even the order of phenomenology or ontology that he had introduced into [0 all dialogue (JJAlT, 134)'
France beginning in 1930' Once again, he completely changed the land· The question-prayer that nUlled me IOward him perhaps already
scape without landscape of thought; he did so in a dignified way, without sh3red in the experience of the d·Dieu with which I beg31l. The greeting
polemic, at once from within, faithfully, and from very f.'lr awa)', from the of the d-Die" docs not signal the end. "The iJ·Dj~ is not a finality," he
attestation of a completely other place. And I believe that what occurred says, thu.s chalJenging the "alternative between being and nothingn~,"
there, in thisscconclsailing, thisserond time that leads us back even further which "i.s not ultim::!te." The iJ-Dleu greets the other beyond being, in
than the first, isa discrtt"t but irreversible mutation,one of those powerful, "what is signified, beyond being, by the word 'glory:" ~The iJ~Djeu is not
singular,and rare provocations in history that, for over twO thousand years a process of being: in the call, I am referred back to the other human being
now, will have ineffaceably marked the space lind body of wh:n is more through whom this call signifies, to the neighbor for whom I am to fear"
or less, in any case something different from, a simple dialogue between (Be, 39-40).
Jewish thought and its others, the philosophies of Greek origin or, in the But I said that I did not want simply to recall what he entrusted tous
tradition of a aTtain "'here I am," the other Abrahamic monotheisms. oftheQ.Dj~. but first of all to say aJj~u to him. to call him by his name, to
This happened, this mutation happened,through him, through Emmanuel call his name, his firsl name, what he is called at the moment when, ifhe
u:vinas, who was conscious of this immense responsibility in a way thaI no longer responds, it is because he is responding in us, from the bottom
was, I believe, at once clear, confident, calm, :md modest, like that of of our he3rts, in us but before us, in liS right before us-in calling us, in
a prophel. recalling' to us: d·Dietl.
One indication of this historical shock wave is the influence of Adieu, Emmanuel.
this thought well beyond philosophy, and well beyond Jewish thought,
on Christian theology, for e:xample. I cannot help recall the day whe.n,
listening toa lecture by Andr~ Neher at a Congress of Jewish Intellectuals,
Emmanuel Le.yinaSlllrned tomeand s..~id, with the gentle irony so f.1miliar
to us: "You see, he's the jewish Protestant, aud I'm the C<ltholic"-:1 quip
that would call for long and serious reflection,
In everything th<lt has happened here through him, thanks to him,
we have had the good fonune not only of recci"jng it while living, from
him living, as a responsibility entrusted by the Ii, ing to the living, bUI also
the good forwne of owing it to him with a light and innocent debt. One
day, speaking orhis research on dealh and of what it owed to I-Ieidegger
CHAPTER 14
JEAN-FRAN<;:OIS LYOTARD
at a boys' Iyc~ in Constantine, Algeria, from 1950 to 1952, before being de Philosophic in 1983 and served as irs president from T9S-l to T9S6. In
appointed to a school for the sons of military personnel :J.l La Fleche 11JS4 he published The Differoui-a work he refers to as my book of
Y
(1952-59). His first book, PhroommoJogy, was published in 1954. In the philosophy"-a den~. sustained engagement with figures such as Plato,
195°S L)·otard was very acnn" in politics; at the suggestion of Pierre Aristotle, Kant, Freud, and Wingenstein.
Souyri he joined Soeialismc ou barbaric, a politic31 organization devoted Lyotard's H(!idegg" and ",he jews" was published in 1989; written
to comlxning exploitation and alienation and engaged in a critique of against the backdrop of the "Heidcgger Affair~ in France, the book is
totalitarianism. He was on the editorial bo.1rd for the journ:11 of the an attempt to understand Heidegger's disturbing silence on the topic of
.s.1mc name and its prineipaJ spokesperson on Algeria for several years. Auschwitz. Several significant books were published during the late 1980s
Lyotard remained with Soeialisme ou barbarit, alongside Claude Lefort and early 1990S, Per~nations (originally ddi\'ered as the Wcllek Library
and Cornelius Castoriadis, until 1964, when he Itft to join the offshoot L.t:ctura at the University of California, Irvine), Th~ Inhuman (1988), a
group Pouvoir ouvrier (1g6... ~. (A coll«tion of psl:udonymous articles col1«tion of essays on time, art, and technology, lLaurtS d'enfance (199 1),
written for Socialismc ou barbarie was published in 19S9 under the title Postmoaf!T1J Fables (1993), and Lessons on th~ Anal)·t;cof,h~ SubJjm~ (1993),
l.JJgu&uda Aigtrims.) an analysis of Kant's third Critiqu~. a text that was pivOtal to much of
From 1959 to 1966 L)'ot:ud was maitr~-assistQnt at the Sorbonne, Lyotard's later work.
before joining the philosophy department at the Universily of Paris X, Lyotard lectured and taught extensivc:ly in the United States during
Nantcrrc. During the political upheav31s of 1968 Lyotard org3nized a the 1980s :1I,d 19905. He bee"me a professor of French and Italian at
number of demonstralions in supporr of the "March 22 Movement." He the University of California. Irvine, and, later, the Rober! W. Woodruff
waschQrgid~ uch"cha at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Professor of French 3t Emory University (1993-98). He also t3ughl for
from 1968 to 19jO, before being named 10 the facuhy at the Univusity of extended periods at the UnivC':rsities of Monaeal, Sao Paulo, Arhus (in
Paris VIII, Vincennes, whne he became maitre de amfbencn in 1972. He Denmark), Turin,and Siegen (in Germany). In 1993 LyOOlrd married his
laught at Vincenna until 1987, e\cntually becoming Professor Emeritus. second wife, Dolora Djid'l.ek. with whom he had a son, Da\,jd.
During the mid-19705 LyOtard was a visiting professor at a number of With his biogrnphiC11 book on Malraux, Signt'd. Malraux (191)6),
Americ3n universities, including the University ofCalifornia at San Diego :lnd The Soundproof Room (19¢!), a powerful analysis of Malraux's Y:lIlti-
and at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and lhe Center for Twentieth Century aesthetics," Lyotard took on a subject whose inteileclUal interests (philos-
studies at the University ofWiscollsin-Milwaukee. ophy. literature, art criticism) and polilicnl engagemellls were as varied as
Lyotard's engagement with M3rx and Freud resulted in several hisown.Augus,ine'sCQlIf~ssiQI1, which was never compleled, was published
important texts in the earl)' '9705, among them Des dispositi/s pulsionn~ls posthumously in 1998.
(1973), Dbi~ d portir de Man et Freud (1973). and Libidinal &onomy Lyo13rd passed away in the early hours of April 21, 1%)8. in Paris,
(1974). In 1977 LyOlard published four books, Innmctions pa;~nnN. RuJi- following a long struggle with leukemia.
mmu pai~. La transformatnll1 Duchamp. and Rmu tremblantJ. The
publication in 1979 of Tk PostmOtkm Condition, a commissioned report
on the status of knowledge in the late twentieth century, led to Lyotard's
internalional fame. Au JUJU!, a dialogue with Je:lIl·Loup Theb:md, also
published in 1979, signaled Lyolard's turn toward lhe question of judg-
ment, particularly in K:lIlt,
Throughout his career, L)'otard maintained :1 keen interest in art,
writing books (including Qu~ JNindre? Adami: Aroko/t.lO', Burro. published
in 1987)and essays, contributing toexhibition catalogs (on Jacques Monory,
Albert Ayme, Henri Maccheroni, Ruth Francken, and Sam Francis) and
even organizing an exhibition, Les immatlriaux. at the P mpidou Center
in Paris in 19Ss. He was one of the founders of the Colll!ge International
ALL-OUT FRIENDSHIP that which links thought to infinite vulnernbility). The now worldwide
thought on the "posunodern" has him to thank, as we know, for its initial
1 fed at such a loss, unable to find public words for what is happe.ning elaboration. Along with so many other innovations. J would say the same
to us, for what has left spcee.hless all th~ who had the good fortune thing about what, in our rime (proper noun and metonymy:"Auschwitz"),
to come near this great thinker-whose absence will remain for me, 1 will have shaken the tradition of philosophy, its t~timony on tcstimon)'.
am certain, forever unthinkable: the unthinkable itself, in the deplhs of Lyotard there H:ntured forth, as always, with a courage and independence
tears. lean-Fran~ois Lyotard remains one of my closest friends, and 1 of thought of which I know few other exampl~. We will no longer be able
don'l use these words lightly. He will have been so, in my heart and to think this disaster, in the history of this century, without engaging with
in my thought,.fOrtover-a word 1 use to translate more Ih:m forty years him, without reading and rereading him. Students the world over know
of reading and "discussion" (he always preferred this word, and even this. I can attest to it from the faraway place from which I am writing
gave it as :I title for :I major lext on Auschwitz.--:and on Ihe rest).' A to you :md where, for many years, I have lived in the same house: that
vigilant, uncompromising "discussion," an amused provocation, always Jean-Frans-oislived in, and where, alone, I cry for him today.
punctuated, it sccmed, by :1 smile, a smile at once lender and mocking, A couple more words before giving up.
an irony committed to disarming itself in the name of what we did not Among the things that I like having liked along with him, there was
know how to name bUI that I today would call"all-oU{ friendship" [omiril~ more than one affront against the institution. For example, the Colltge
d-tour-romp"J. A tone at once light and serious, a burn of philosophical I nternational de Philosophic, for which he was a driving force, which owes
laughter that all the friends ofJean-Frnn~ois can no doubt hC3r todayd~p him so much, and which therearguard ofresentment still finds intolerable.
within themselv«. A singular combination ofcutting laughter(judgment) One of the last times I saw Jean-Franl;ois, he burst into laughter at the
and infiniu:Jy respectful attention, which 1 always loved and thought 1 pitiful grimaces ofceruin hidden detractors. As always, he wascommiued
could recognize, even in the moment,s,--which were r3re and hard to pin to counterattack. But he also laughed on the phone to reassure me about
down--of "differend," in all the areas common to us (phenomenology, his health: ""'s foolishnt:$$ that s.aves me," or something to that effecL
to begin with. an admiring and indispensable reference to Levinas, even Upon the death of Deleuze, you 31so asked me 10 attempt-that lime
if it wasn'[ exactly the same one-along with so many other points of tOO without delay, and in the midst of my sorrow-a sort of testimony.
reference in the same land.scape). But J cannot and do not even wish I seem to recall having said that I could feel us quite alone now, Jean·
to try to reconstitute here all the p.uhs on which we have crossed and Frans:ois Lyotard and I, the sole survivors of what has bttn identified as
accompanied one another. These encounters will remain for me forever a "generation"--of which 1 am the last born, and, no doubt, the mast
uninterrupted. They took place but will not cease (0 seek their place in melancholic of the group (they were all more joyful than I). What can I
me, right up until the end. The memories of friends differ greatly from say today, then? That I love Jean-Frans-ois, that I mi.» him, like the words
one another; they probably bear no resemblance to one another. And yet I J cannot find, beyond words: J alone, and thosedC3r to him, as well as our
remember today having shared tOO many things with JC3n-Fran~oisduring common friends. For our best friends, in thought as in life, were, J believe,
all those years to try to encompass them in a few words. J did not know friends we had in common. And that is rather rare. J am going to take
him at the time of Socialisme ou barbarie, but I thought J could see trac~ refuge in the texts that he wrote here, and I am going 10 listen to him, on
of a faithful att.3chment (0 it in all his great books (for example, to cite only the Pacific Wall, so as to rethink childhood....
a few, D;sCQu"~, Figur~, The PQstmod~rn Condition, Th~ Diff~end, which
I would relate today, in admiration. to his last writings on childhood
and tears: an immense: treatise or treaty on absolute disarmament, on
Tranw.IM b,. P:ue>.I~-Anne 8n.uh and MKhxl Naas (01" Ih'$ volUme'. Fim Ftt.nch publiealion.
"Ami~-IOUt_rompt"C.~ I...ihIrvt'-. Mut.h 1.l, '998.
commemoration}, or even the normative wish, ~it would be better if there Apocalypse; "ultra non erit ... luctus, ouk eSlai eti ... penthos": '"God
were no mourning." For wouldn't the institution of mourning run the shall wipe all tears from their eyes. IXath shall be no more. Neither
risk of securing the forgetting? Of protecting againsl memory instead of mourning, nor cries nor pain shall be, for the first universe [the first things
keeping it? ofthe: world I has vanished (quia prima abit:Tunt, 01; la proIa apdrJum J." This
These hypotheses will remain forever open: is it a prediction or a echo of the Apocalypse is infinitely far from exhausting Jean-Fran~ois
prescriplion, an order, prohibition, or wish? What is more, all these "as Lyotard's words, but it calloot but accompany, like a prccursive double,
if's" in these hypotheses come to be suspended through the detour of a like an elusive memory, at once clandestine and visionary, this "there shall
negation. One must first pass through mourning, through the meaning of be no mourning." It could be said that this spectral echo roams about like a
the word "mourning," enduring a mourning that befits i~ meaning, its thiefof the Apocalypse; it conspires in the exhalation of this phrase,comes
essence, according to the very vision of what it will or must be, one must back to haunt our reading, respires or breathes in advance-like the aura
first cross this threshold and understand the meaning of what a mourning of this "there shall be IQuml no mourning," which Jean.Fran~ois will have
worthy of its name would or should be. in order to be able, afterward laum) nonetheless signed, he alone.
or thereupon, but in a second moment, to confer upon mourning or the Earlier, I venturro the h)·pot:hesis, its,df uncenain, that this "there
meaning of mourning a negation, a Mno"lne pas). As for mourning, there shall be no mourning" may not be a constative but a normative or
shall be: none. There shall be: 1UJne of it. And in the French synt2X, Mil prescriptive phrase. Yet nornutive and prescriptive are not the same
n'y aura pas de dcuil," the de, the partitive article, on the verge IJ I'arrick thing. The Difft'rend offers us the means to distinguish them.' Speaking
de) of de:l.Ih and of mourning, is just as disturbing in the syntax of thi.s about the "Wc" after Auschwitz., Jean-Fra.n~ois insists once morc on the
extraordinary phrase: of mourning [du deuil], there shall be none, none heterogeneity of phrases, and particularly on the subtle differcnce betwttn
of it, none at all, neither a lOt nor a liult", neither in whole nor in part- a normative phr.ase and a prescriptive one:. \Vhereas the normative phrase
no matter how small the part; but also, as for mourning [de deui/l, there "resembles a perform;nive" and in itself, by itself, in its immanence,
shall be none, which means that mourning itself[/e deuill shall not be. No "effectuates the legitimation of the oblig3tioll by formulating it," the
mourning, period. prescriptive phrase requires another phrase, a further one. This further
But is there ever mourning itself, any mourning at all? Does such phrnse is left to the addressee, the reader in this case; it is left to him or
mourning exist? Is it ever presentl Does it ever correspond to an encnad her, and thus to us here, to t3ke it up or link on, e...en if it is, as is said
The very authority of the assertion "there shall be no mourning" can even, elsewhere, with a "lasl phrase." Jean.Fran~()is continues: "That is why it
in its decontextuali7.ed isolation, lead one to think that Jean.Franlfois also is customary to say that the obligation entails the freedom of the one who
meant to tlfXl$C it 10 an analytical question. What is one saying in the is obligated." And he adds-and I imagine him smiling mischievously as
end, what doa one mt"an to say, when one asserts, in 3 sus~nded phr:lse, he wrOfe this remark about the rreedom ofthe one obligated, playing with
"There shall be no mourning'" quotation marks-"This is a 'grammatical remark,' one that bears upon
The impossibility ofassigning anyone single addressee to this phrase the mode oflinkingcalled forth by the ethical phrase."lfthe ethical phrase
is at the same time: the probably calculated impossibility of determining its "there shall be no mourning" is taken as an obligation, it thus implies, in
context, including the meaning or the referent of the statement-which. a quasi-grammatical way. that another phrase coming from an addressee
in fact, earli" than a discourse,lxfor~ being a statement. forms and leaves responds to it. A phrase already called for in advance.
a trace. It is the impossibility of describing a context whose borden would
be secure. No border is given, noshore trivelat which 10 arrive or to allow
this phrase to arrive. L:ner, I will explain what the apparent or manirest I. Ic:an-F~, Lyou.d. T~~: PltItUn III Drs,..~. IUM. ~SC" V:a.n Dl:n
context was for this discreet but public and published declaration. Yet, Abbo:dc (Minnnpohs: UmvcnK) of MmMtOUl PTet.1.. 1988). 99 {bnnf"tcr abb,,"dled
even as I givc further surface infonnation about the subject, the context as D).IGrorga Van Om Abbedc:'llransblKon ofT1J~ Diff~ has, Wlm llUt a roupk
of minot modifiulioon" brcn used IhrouSh<>ut here. and his lramb.uO>l of moft key
will be far from 5.'1turated, far from saturable, secure on all its borders. Lyourdian tenns ret:linc:d. For example. Ihe French -p/l_~ is tUlUlated mruu~hout
And so let us dream: "There shall be no mourning" could have here:u -phraM'~ ralher than -M'nlentt.~ Sn: Vall l:kn Abbcck'l jUMific:at;oa of mis
been an apocalyptic repetition, the hidden or playful citation or John's thoe« (lQ 1?4.-T_.1
I would have followed this 1:lS[ recommendation, let myself be led be no mourning. OVer me, the phrase says, or al least the phrasing of
by such an "obligation," had the phrase "there shall be no mourning" the phrase says, you will not go into mourning. You will especially nOI
~n determinable as a constative. normative, or prescriptive phrase, or organize mourning, and eVen less what is called the work of mourning.
~f n had been possible, by either internal or external means, to identify And of course the "no mourning," left to itself, can mean the perpc:tual
Its addressee. Yet not only is this not the cast:, but this phrast:, unlike any impossibility ofmourning, an incon$Olability or irreparability that no work
other example ofnormative or prescriptive phrases given by Jean-Fran~ois of mourning shall ever come to mend.
Lyotard, contains no personal pronoun. "There shall be no mourning~ is But the "no mourning" ean also, by the same token, oppose testimony,
an impersonal phrase, without an I or a you. whether singular or plural, attestation, protestation, or contestation, to the very idea of a testament,
without a we, he, she, or they. This grammar sets it apan from all the to the hypothesis of a mourning that always has, unfortunately, as we
Other examples given in Th~ Differcui in the course of the analysis jwt know, a negative side, at once laborious, guilt ridden and narcissistic,
mentioned. reactive and turned toward melancholy, if not: envy. And when it borders
I thus did not know how to take this phrase, this phrase without a on celebration, or U-'l2kt-. one risks the worst.
Iruly personal pronoun, when. about tm years ago, in an issue of fA"tIW! Despite alii have just said, and would wish to reaffirm, about the
phi/osop}'iqt«, Jean-Fran~ois pretended to be addressing me by pretending absence ofa definite addrcss« for a phrase that was above alJ not addressed
not toaddre$S me--or anyone. As ifthere already had to be $Orne mourning to me, in a context in which it may nevertheless bave seemed to be.
of Ihe address« of this phrase that says "there shall be no mourning." The I could not completely avoid a temptation. The temptation to imagine
rea~er must already go through mourning Va;r~ JOn MU;/] in his vc.ry Jean-Fran~ois, one day in '990, betting that the phrase "there shall be no
desire to know to whom this phrase is destined or addressed, and above mourning," which he wrote as he read it, and which I myst:lf then read
all, with respect to the possibility of being. he or she, or us, its addressee. in a particular fashion in 1990, would one day, when the time came, be
Readability bears this mourning: a phrase can be: readable, it must be able reread by one of the tWO of us (but which one?) both in the same way
to become readable, up to a cemin point, without the reader, he or she, or and differently, for oneselfand in public.. For this phrase was published. It
any other place of reading, occupying the ultimate position of address«. remains public even if it is uncenain whether its public character exhausts
This mourning provides the first chance and the terrible condition of it and whether there might not be a crypt forever buried and hidden
all reading. within it. As if, published. it still remained absolutely secret. private, or
Today, I do not know any lx:tter, I still do not know. how to read this clandestine-three values (secret, private, clandestine) that I would wish
phrase, which I nevertheless cannot set aside. I cannot Stop looking at it. It to distinguish carefully. I do not mean that this phrase is testamentary. I
holds me, It will not let me go, even while it docs not need me as addressee take all phrases to have a vinually testamentary character, bUI I would
or inheritor,even while it is designed to pass right by me more quickly than not rush to give this one, just becau.sc it says something about the death
it is to pass through me. I will thus turn round, turn back to these five words of the author, any specificity as a last will, as the instructions of a mortal
[seven in French} whose imbrication simply cannot be linked up, whose lx:ing, even less of someone dying. Rather, it tells us something about the
chain cannot be moored or fastened OntO any constraining COntext, as if it testamentary-perhaps that what the most faithful inheritance demands
risked-a risk calculated by Jean-Fran~is-being given over forever to is the absence of any testament. In this respect. it says again or dictateS
dispcrsion,dissipation,oreven toan undecidability such that the mourning another "there shall be no mourning." One would owe it 10 the loved one
it speaks of immediately turns oock to the mute mumbling of those five or the friend not to go through or even into mourning for them.
lor seven I words, This phrase gets carried away all by itself. It holds itself I am going t'O put aside, though just for a time, this strange phrase.
b3ck or withdraws; ont can neither understand it nor be deaf to il, neither It willlhus keep all of ils reserve. I set it aside for a moment with the odd
decipher il nor understand nothing of it, neither kcep it nor lose it, neither feeling that it will have been, one day, entrusted to me, intensely, directly,
in oneself nor Outside oneself. It is this phrase itse.lf, the phrasing of this immediately addressed to me, while leaving me with no right over it,
undassifiable phrase, drifting far from the categories analyzed even by especially nOt thai of the addressee. He whQ signed it is still looking at me
its author, thai one feels driven to go through mourning (fit;" SOli d~u;/J, with an attention at once watchful and distracted.
precisely at the point where this phrasing says to us: over me, there shall
111 CHAPTlla l'ovaTlIltN
RC:lding Jean-Fr:lOS"ois Lyotard, r/:r/:ading him so intenscly today, I think at least think they form, a communit}' of the diaspora; they are gathered
I can discern a quation that would retain a stran~, une:lnny, quality for together by this principle of dispersion, origin3ty exile. the promise, thl:
him, a power that some might rush to call organizing, a force that I also idea of a return, Jerusalem, if nOl !srad, and so on. The dispersion of
ht:lieve to ht: radically disruptive. If I were to call it subvrnive, it would phrases, however, would bean evil worse than evil sinee what these phrases
ht: not so as to take adV3ntage of a facile word but so as lO dCK"riht: in forever lack-and this is the point ofT!l~ Differ-rod-is the very horizon of
its tropic literality (tropic. mcaning turning, like the spiraling of a turn or a consensual meaning. ora translatability, of a possible "to translate" (I uS/:
a tormun) and sketch out in its figurallener a movement that revoh·a, the infinitive form hcre for reasons that will become clear in a moment).
evolves, rc:volutionius, overturns from the bottom up--as an)' sub"crsion What is lacking in this dispersion of phrases, in this e"jl "·orse than evil, is
should. The effect of this question is not to radiate out infinitely from a the horizon, or even me hope, oftheir very dispersion ever r«eiving a com-
center of thought bUI would instead ht:, if one insists on kttping dose to mon meaning. What is inscribed in this worse, apparentJy, is the differend
a center, like a whirlwind, like a chasm open as a silent eye, like a mute as e,'erlasting difference betw«n the wrong and the litigation, for example.
glance, as Jc:an-F ran~is liked to say about musicl an C)'C ofsilence, cvcn as But, as we wiJl see, there may be somcthing worse yet than this worse.
it summons speech and commands so many words thai crowd about the It is not certain thai the "worsc" is actually some thing, that it ever
opening of the mouth. Like the eye of a hurricane. appears, is e,'er presently present, essentially, substantially, like somcthing
This question of such vertiginous force, this Ihought like the "eye that "'is." It is thus uncertain whether;t can be approached by ml:ans of an
of a hurricane," would not be the question of evil, nOI even of radical ontological question, Nl:vertheless, I shall not refrain from asking, 50 as to
e.vil. Worsc, it would be the question of the worst. A question th3t some pretend to begin: What is the worsc, the worst? Is there an essence of the
may deem not only apocalyptic but altogether infern31. And the eye of worst? And does ir ml:an anything else, and worse, than evil?'
the hurricane, the hyperbole of the worst, is probably not forl:ign. in its I would fim like., for reasons I sh311 give later, to surround this old
excessive motion, in its blustery violence, to what sucks down from below, word ti~uj/, "mourning," with a few phrases.
making it turn upon iuelf, the phrase "'there shall be no mourning." That As if I wl:re citing it-but I just cited it and I will cite it again.
there be no mourning-is that bad? Good? Bener? Or is it even worse There come moments when, as mourning demands fd~uj/ Db/jgd,
than mourning, like thl: mourning withom mourning of mourning? one feels oblig:m:d to declare one's debts. We feel itour duty to duty to say
In at least tWO instances the thought of the worst is mentioned, both what we owe to the (riend. Yl:t being conscious of such a duty may seem
times quickly, in Tile Differ-md. First, through a quotation of Adorno: unbearable and inadmissible. Unbearable for me, :lS I bc:.lieve it would
~In the Glmps death has a nO"eI horror; since Auschwitz, fearing death ha"e also been for Jean·Fran~is Lyourd. Unbearable, no doubt, because:
means fearing something worse than death~ (D, 88). I emphasize me ",-ord unworthy of thc very thing it means to give itself to unconditionally,
~worse.· a romparati"c that can so easily turn into a hyperbolic superlati,·e. the unconditional perhaps always having to cndure the trial of death.J
There is worse man radical evil, but mere is nothing worS/: than the worst. Inadmissibll:, not because one would have problems recognizing one's
There would thus be something worse than death. or at least an experie:nce
that, in going further than death and doing more harm than it, wouJd be :l. I OO(e heard my friend ~ Mugd :uk:l $imibr qunlion. bul in thtroruat or another
disproportionatc to what is too easily granted just after death, namely. sJYU of thin.king and SCI of .c:fe....lW:l'S.. s.-c: hi, auy ~l.a ~nornil\,u.iornorphique
mourning. A little further, the worsl: appears a second time, once again de: b su ...·ivan«: l:krncb« la qUOlion du plrc:,~ in L'II";",,,l ilHlOinogruplllqW,w.
Mane-Louiloe Mallei (P1f;l: Galil&:, (999),441...(,8.
in relation to the survivors of Auschwitz, to the impossibility of bearing
j. Outline: of the argumenl [ w:lS not able to ,pell WI during the coofc.ralce: ck;llh
witness, of saying "we;' of speaking in the "first person pluraL" Jean- obliplel: il ..'oultllhullX' lhe ocher original name of ab.iolule OOligation. Unronditional
Pmn~ois Lyotard wonders: "-Would this be a case of a dispersion worse engagemenl bind~ only to the one who (~who- rather than -Wh.:1I from the place
8
).
than the diaspora, the dispersion of phrases!" (D. 98). This would seem of death, become a\ once Ihe:: abwlt origin and ~ dalinalion or the al»olute::.
to imply that the dispersion of thl: diaspora is only half·b:ld: in facl., it is UDCOrldilional, unnc:gotiabk: ob/iption, beyond any (",IUOloCliotI. Amc::~ withoul rc!Urn
woulll thus open ooto d~ Uncon..Jltion.aJ. TerrifyIng. Terror. Thi' would be the: mc.amntt
barely a dispersion-and dispcnion in itselfis not absolute evil. As soon as of-God i, dcad.~ the anociation of tht name of Cod, :1$ the pbc:e of the: UncondlUooul,
it receives a proper nam/:, indl:ed a national naml:, this historical naml:, the ....ith dconh. A dapt"r.llC rondusiOfl., perhaps: thc: unrondiliorul (which I diwngu,:lh
djaspoTU, interrupts absolute dispersion. The Jews of the diaspora form, or here from lhe fOVCmttn, 0'", if !he diltinclion KrlUiM improb.o.bkl 'igninel thc:dnth
debts or one's dUly as indebted, but simply because: in de:daring these debts that is named by this word, constitutes the first destruction of what the
in such a manner, panicularly when lime is limited, one might seem to adverb tmtmble might mean; to be mstmble, it is absolutely necessary
be putting an end to them, calculating what they amQunt to, pretending not to be gathered into any son of emnnblt.) But sure of being together
then to be able to re<:ount them, to measure and thus limit them, or more outside any oamCilble ensemble, tvt were so, even before having decided
seriously still! to be able to seulethem in the vt:ry act ofexposing them. The upon it, and sure of it with ajaith Voi], a sort offaith, over which we were
mere recognition ofa debt already tends toward its cancellation in a denial. perhaps rogether in accord, and in accordance with which we went well
The recognizing, grateful fye-comultSsanrtl consciousness, all consciousness togt.ther. Yes, a faith, because Jean·Frall~ois,like all those I like to c;'lll my
in f.'lCt, perhaps falls into such sacrificial denial: consciousness in general is best friends. also remains for me, in a certain way, forever unknown and
perhaps the sacrificial and bereaved denial of the sacrifice it mourns. This infinitely secret.
may be why there must nOt be-why there shall be-no mourning. For rcasons that should become dear later, I have just surrounded
I also wanted, for reasons that should become clear later, [0 surround the old word/oi, "faith," with a few phrases.
the old wordgardtr, "[0 keep," with a phrase. As ifl were citing it-and I will cite it.
As if r were citing it-and I will cite it.
For I know that the debt that binds me to Jean-Frans:ois Lyotard In order to free myself, and you as well, from the narcissistic p.1thos
is in $Orne sense incalculable; I am conscious of this and want it thus. r that such a situation, the exhibition of such a "we," summons up, I was
reaffirm it unconditionally, all the while wondering in a son of despair dreaming of being capable 3t Itlsr of another approach. I W3S drc31ning
why an unconditional en!f-lgement binds only at death, or to death. to of escaping genres in general. p.1rticularly twO genres of discourse-and
the one [0 whom death has come, as if the unconditional still depended tWO unbearable, unbearably presumptuous wal's of s.1ying "we." Pirst. I
on 3bsolme death, if there were such a thing, death without mourning; wanted to avoid the expected homage 10 )ean-Franj;-ois Lyotard's thought
another interpretation of"there shall be no mourning." I willlhus not even and oeuvre. an homage taking the form of a philosophical contribution
begin to give:ln account of this debt, to give an accounting of it, whether fit for one of the numerous conferences in which we took part together,
with respect to friendship or to philosophy, or to that which, linking Jean-Fran~ois and I, ill so many places, cities, and countries (and right
friendship to philosophy, will have ktpl us [gordbJ together, Je3n-Frans:oi.~ here, at the College International de Philosophic, a place that remains so
and me (kepI' us together without synchrony, symmetry, or reciprocity, dear [0 me for having been, since iLS origin, desired, inhabited, shared
according to a reaffirmed dispersion), in so many places and so many wirh him, as was also the case for other, more faraway places, for example,
times that I cannot even begin to circumscribe them. I am not able here, 3 particular house on the Pacific Wall). I really do not fect up today to
relying on myown memory, to recall all the places, occasions, people, texts, such an homage in the form ofa philosophical contribution, and Lyotard's
thoughts, and words that, whether we recognized it or not, will have kept oeuvre certainly does not need me for that. But I also wamed to stay
us together, to this day, together apart, together dispersed into the night, away from an homage in the form of a personal testimony, which always
together invisible 10 one another, to the point that this being~together is no tends toward reappropriation and always risks giving in to an indecent
longer assured, even though we were sure of it, I am sure of it, We' were way of saying "we," or worse. "me," when precisely my first wish is to
together (el1.l'tmhlel. We were sure of it, but sure with what was neither let Jean-Frant;ois speak, to read and cite him, him alone, standing back
an assurance nor the surety of some certainty nor even a common accord without, however, leaving him alone as he is left to speak, since this
ltmt'71'1bkJ. (One is never mstmhle, never together, in an tnsemble, in a would amount to another way of abandoning him. A double injunction,
group, gathering, whole or set, for the tnscnbk, the whole, the totality then, contradictory and unforgiving, How to leave him alone without
abandoning him? How, then, without further betrayal, to disavow the act
of narcissistic remembrance, so full of memories to cry over Iplturer) or
of the dead, d<:~th without mourning: tlH:re shall Ix riO mourning. On<: is undu an to make us cry (faiYt' plt'tIYtr)? I have just surrounded these words pkurn'
unC<)rt(!iti<:mal obligation only toward the dead. One can alw~ys negor.iare conditions
and jaiYt' plt'M"- "lO cry" and "to make cry," for reasons that willlx:come
with lhe living. Upon death, there i, a ruptur(: of$)'mmetry: trurh. the imp')uibility of
pretending anymore. nut doc.t on<: ever really deal wilh Ihede~dl Whocould swear to dear later.
ill The impouible dealh perhaps means lhat what is living conditions everything. As if I were citing them-and I will cite them.
126 C:IIAPTU 'OURTIlll"
&t on giving in to neither of the~ two genres, neither of the~ two I thus wanted to follow a thrC3d of memory--and a p3rticular rec·
kwe'S," in a hurry to getaway from them, knowing nevertheless th<lit both oll«tion w3iting for what could, one day to come.. come to memory. What
will catch up with me at every instant, resigned to struggle with this fate, guided me, more or less obscurdy, was an interwC3ving of motifs whose
to fail before it, so as at least to understand it, if nO( think it, I had at first economy I came to see as necessary when most o(the threads o(the phrase:
considered taking up again a conversation 'vitn Jean.Fran~ois, addressing "there shall be no mourning" appeared woven together silently within it.
him as if he were here. For let me emphasiu that it is III if he were First, the thread o( singularity, of the event and of the destination--of
here, in me, close to me, in his name. without fooling myself or anyone the "to whom it happens." Next, the thread of repetition, that is, of the
else in the least with this kas if," bearing in mind that he is not here and intrinsic iterability o(the phrase, which divides the destination, suspends
that, despite the different modalities, qualities, and necessities ofthesc: two it on tM trace between presc:nce and absence, beyond both. an iterability
incompatible but equally irrefutable propositions (he is here and he is not that, in dividing its destination, splits singularity: as soon as a phrase is
here, in his name and beyond his name) there is no possible transaction. iterable, and it is so right 3way, it can break loose from its context and
And what I would ha\'e wished at once to discover and invent was the most lose the singularity o(its destined addressee. A technical machinery comes
jUst I:l.nguage, the most refined, beyond the concept, so as to do even more in advance to strip it ofthe uniciry of the occurrence and the destination.
than describe or analyze without concession, so as to speak as concretely The rangled web o( these threads (the machine, rC(>etition, chance, and
and tangibly as possibleoftht fact that lean-Fran~ois is here, that he speaks the loss of destinal singularity) is precisely what I would like to entrust
to us, sees us, hears us, answers us, and that we can know this, (<<I i~ and to you along with this reroJlection. An easier choice, more cheerful, more
say it without impugning any truth of what is called life, death, pre~nce, modest, more in k«piog with the adolescent modcsty that always marked,
or absence. And nothing atteus to this better than the fact that ( want to and from both sides, our friendship. This modesty was characterized by a
sp=ak or address myself to him also, here, not knowing whether I should trait that was not: in fuct so assured, and left open its destinal singularity. I
address him with the formal VOUS, as I alwaY5 did, or with the informal am speaking of the fact that, in a circle of old (riends (in particular in the
m-which will take me some time yet. College International de Philosophic), where almost everyone addressed
Later, perhaps. one another with the friendly or (amiliar ltI (orm, we always refrained
This very time, this future. perhaps announces the attestation of from this way of spaking by :I sort of unspoken agreement. Whereas
which 13m speaking. And the question I ask myselftrernbling, (ollowing we ooth said fU to most of our common friends, who had been doing
him, concerns a certain right, always improbable, resistant to proof if so among themselves, as well as with us, for a long time (such was the
not to faith-a certain right to say "we." As we will hear, Jean.Fran~ois case. for example, with Philippe Lacoue·Laoo.rthe and Jean-Luc- Nancy,
sketches a SOrt of answer to this question, but it is neither easy nor given though thtre were many others), Jean-Fran~ois and I, for decades, did not
in advance. quitt avoid but wert careful not to JOy "w" to on~QnOlh"" This could have
So I had thought about taking up an interrupted con\·erS3tion. the suggested something more than the inherent difficulry ( have using this
strangest ofall. In fact, all our converS3tions were odd and cut short. for all form of address, much more so, to be sure, than Jean.Fran\ois. It could
conversations 3re finite, nothing being less infinite than a convers.1tion, and have simply implied a polite dist3ncc, perhaps even a 50rt o( neutralization
that is why one is never finished with the interruption of conversations, of intimate singularity, o( private intimacy, by means of the prol>er, plural
or, as he preferred to all them, kdiscus.sions," I had thus thought about quasi*generality ofthe formal vous. But this was not the case; if it somehow
pursuing, as if within myselfbul taking you as witnesses, a converS3tion indicated a respect that also keeps a respectful distance, the exceptional
that had ended not with Jean-Fran{ois's death but well before, for reasons character of this tXJIlS gave it a sort of transgressive value, like the use
none other than those that knock the wind outofall finitespec:eh. I thought of a secret code reser,..ed only for us. In fact one day, somebody in the
I could take up this thread again in order perhaps to declare, among $0 College expressed their surprise about this in front o( us ("How is it that
much many other debts, one debt that nobody would have considered, not after so many years you still say VOtlS to one another; no one else here
even 'ean-Fran~ois, not even myself, in truth, up umil today. As for the does that!"--or something to that effect). I can still hear Jean.Fran~ois,
m;my other debts that link us, you do not need me to declare them: they who was the first to answer, demurring with that smile I would like to
are re.ad3ble in published texts. imitate and that )'OU all know so well, speaking wh.:ul took right away to
:n8 CHAf'T1lR fClIaTli:CS JIIAIo'- ....ANC;OU LYOTA.O C1~
be a U"uth, gr:lIt~ful that he saw it so well and stated it so perfectly: "No, or mechanical, but b«ause of the relationship between these techno--
h~ said, let us kttp this; this vow bc.longs solely to us, it is our sign of machinations and the effacement of singularity and, thus, of destinal
recognition, our secr~t language." And I approv~d in silence. Henceforth, unicity, its essential link will soon become dear with the phrase J had to
it was as if the vow bc.twttn us had become an elective privilege: "we begin with, th~ phrase that surrounded and besieged me in advance: "there
reserve ourselves the vow, that's what we do, we say vow to one anoth~r; it shall be. no mourning." I am thus returning to the important question of
is our shared anachronism, our exception from time." From then on, this lu.saying. We nev~r used, as I said, the tu form in spe3king with one
vous bc.twee:n us be.longed to another languag~, as if it marked th~ passage, another, but in the serial text I had written for w immallrUlux {which
through a kind of grammatical contraband, in contravention of customary consisted of d~fining and organi7.ing in a computer network, through a
praCl:ices, to the idiomatic sign, the shibboJ~/h of a hidden intimacy, one more or I~ss virtual discussion on early Olivetti computers among J~an.
that would be clandestine, coded, held b3ck, discreetly held in reserve, FranlYois's twenty-six guests, a series of words, mOtifs, concepts selected by
held in silenc~ Imd. Jean·Fran~ois, the final result being me text later published under the titl~
Among so many oth~r signs of this happy complicif)', signs that spoke Epmlwsd'krilur~).1 myselfhad played with a IU devoid of any assignable
in silence like a series of winks, I would have liked to recall the moments addressee, leaving th~ chance reader without the possibility of deciding
when I~an-Fran~ois made fun of me, f~igning to take on and imitate the whether the Itt singularly addressed the rec~i\'ing or reading position, that
French.Algerian acc~nt and gestures h~ pr~t~nded to recogni7.~ in me, is, whoever, in the public SJXlc~ of publication, happened to read it, or,
precisely bc.cause, as you know, he too had his Algerian moment. And I rather, and this is altogether different, altogether other, some particular
learned rather late about the strang~ love he shared with me for someone private, if not cryptic, addressee. The point of all th~ both sophisticated
whom I always lend to place back in his native Algeria: Saint Augustine. and naive procedures was, among others, to make tremble, and sometimes,
\Ve were, in the time of these two memories, lloccording to an anachronism at th~ limit, tremble with fear, the limit itself, all borders, particularly
of some fiftee:n centuries, Algerian compatriots of sorts by relauon. those: between private and public, singular and general or universal, the
If I r~call what was said and left unsaid, silenced Ilu], in this unsaid intimate or inner realm and theoutside,:lnd soon. In so doing, I pretended
Iu, it is because the text from which I earlier drew the phrase "there shall to challenge whoever was addressed by this IU IQ trunslar~ the idiomatic
be no mourning" puts center stage what had gone all behind rh~ scenes phrasing of many of my phrases, to translate it into another language
between thism and vous. The phrase appears in the .section "Mourning" of (interlinguistic translation, in Jacobson's terms), or into the same language
a text entitled "Tr311slator's Otes," in a special issue of a journal that was, (inualinguistic translation), or even into another system of signs (music
as they say--darc I say it?-"devoted" to me.4 In it, Jean·Fran~is plays or painting, for instance, interscmiotic translation). Accordingly, after a
at responding to texts that I had, upon his request, writt~n in 1~4 for the phrase I considered untranslatable, I would regularly add the infinitive
exhibition Les imtrUllmaux. form of the ironic command or the imperative challenge: "to translate."
Let me simply recall, rather than saying mor~ about the calculated Now, it ;s this challeng~ (to Il'ansIQ/~, which, if my memory is correct, was
randomness of this exhibition, the chance Jcan·Fran~ois's invit:lItion pre· actuall)' one of the words in th~ selected vocabulary) that Jean-Fran~ois
sen ted me, namely, th~ wond~rful m.:lchinations that led m~ tolearn to usc:, pretended [Q take up some five or six years later, in the text from which
despite my previous reluctance, a word processor, which I have depended I took the "there shall be no mourning," The text in its entirety, many of
upon ever since. Instead of giving grand narratives .:Ibout major debts, I you know it wdl, I 2m sure, is thus entitled '"Translator's Notes." In it,
prefer to speak of this appar~ntly minor debt that Jean·Fran~ois perhaps Jean·Fran{ois plays seriously not at translating but at imagining the notes
knew nothing about, just as I myself never knew whether he used a of a virtual translator. He does SO under four subheadings, which I will
typewriter or a computer. This debt would appear to be merely technical only mention, leaving you to read these eight pages worthy of centuries
of talmudic commentary. The four headings are "DCjouer"ITo frustrate,
foil, outmaneuver, evade, playoff], '"Encore"\Again, more, yet, although,
,.. Rn-- pJoi'-fJliq- k l. FI'W'f« n k'mlll"' no. ~ April-jufIC 1990- tpccial imIe
still), "Toi" (Youl, and "Deuil" [Mourning I. And right from the first phrase
~l),:,rrH:b:~. Cadx:nne Mabbou. TralUboonUlf; moditXd from -rnnsbtor't Notf;$. ~
lnlnt. Robncl.Fran{Qi. Lack. in PI..: TAw W._",,*/ow-lofP"i/oloplty6bumrmr 1997): of the first heading, right from the incipit, Jean.Fran~ois plays, plays ofT,
n.
5'~7 (ht;rf;3(If;r abbrf;Yialed 3' replays the great scenC' of the til and ti,e vous, of the bcing~to·you 10 IUJ
ljO CII"PT"a FOUaTUN
and the being~yours (a toi]. He addrcSS(::s m~ as IJOUI. I assume-no doubt I. lim~, in "1>6;ouer," that of a dllCltII, one could say, or of
First
rather imprudently, for the reasons I mentioned-that he is playing at ducl;on. I select these lines, which already point, as it were---lMtW«1l the
answering me 3nd is pretending to address himself to me, for such is the transduction oftransltltion IlraductiorlJ and seduction-to the passage from
law of the genre and the contractual agreememofthis text. Right from the the tIOUI to the Ill, and, later, from a certain III to a certain nOllS.
first phrase, then, he addresses me as IJOUS, leaving for the two final parts He writes:
of the text entitled "Translator's Notes" the passage to the Ill. Here are The untranslatahle I~ves sQll'\ething 10 "transduce," something
the first phrases: "Your fear (you have left me the IJOtII, for good measure, still to be translated. "Thar, we arc e'l:pecting one thing or another,
<agreed) on the large and the small scale, of being made C<1.ptive." on arrival" is not "dlC essential thing:' it is "that we areawaiting
Before returning to the question of the worse, of the "worse than each other, you and r, on arrival." Not in the language of arrival,
death," toward which all work of mourning tends (when the work of but in ~the language ofour coumry." (I defer this "you and I.") To
luourningseeks neither to save from death nor to deny it, but to save from await one another: reflexivc. transitive? How to translate this OUI·
a "worse th:ln death"), I would like to follow in this eight-page tel(t the maneuvering Idt1'eu)? In the: language in which it is wrinen. You
trajectory leading from the first part, "D€jouer," to the fourth, "Deuil," resist capture Ihanks only 10 love of Ihe language that captivalcs.
through the second, "Encore," and third, "Toi." I will follow only its Since language captures b)' means of its amphibologies, you mark
main outlines, for (0 do it Justice would require an infinite analysis of the them. 1n order to seduce langullge, (T, 51)
tight interplay ofcitations, quotation marks, responses. turns, and elliptical
questions. Here, then,arebuta few white pebbles to lead us from the scene :2.The s«ond lime would be: time proper, dle time of time. Without
of the lJOIIS and the loi to the scene of mourning, so that we might then waiting any longer for the passage to the singular and familiar, to the 10;,
come back to what Th~ Dijf~~d will have already told us concerning a this time announces the passage in what 1 would call a more "cutting"
cert.1.in "we," one that is difficult to think, a certain "we" after Auschwitz, manner. J cl(cerpt a few lines from "'Encore," the title of this second timc,
a "thinking we," a "we" that is neither the one related to what Lyotard by cutting even lllore brutally. By cuning, though you are going to hear
C:lJls "the be.1.uti(ul death '. nor the one that undergocs in Auschwitz what a cerr",in "'with yOIl llod me it'~ decisive. cuning" at the end. It decides
is. as he says, "worse than death," This "we," perhaps the last one, or the resolutely with respect to a certain "we" or "us" produced by the mirror
one before last, is neither that of the "beautiful death" nor worse than that Jean-Fran~ois claims to hold up before "us":
death, but-in a very particular sense of the word-a posthumous "we," Vou give me your voice. your vote (Vo;x). But you have nothing to
In a passage I will read in a moment, Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard says: "We give. Except suspense. I try suspense.... You will smile. Yet an-
only are 'we' posthumously." other one who will have gOlten it wrong. You watch me w:ltching
My little white pebbles are only or mostly cit.1.tions. I will cite Je.1.n~ your gaze in me mirror I hold up before us (},fira;r). .•. 1 run on
Fran~is, and when he cites me in the citation as if playfully to add time [0 Time to see if your desire to bend the matrix (to make it
translation notes, I will make thatlitde two-fingered gesture that mimics submit?) ilSClf lacks time.... and yet you declare your "sentiment,"
quotations marks. What comes between my little white pebbles (which your revoir or yOur ruse: there is simuluneity, beyond all temporal
you may think of as eithe.r those left by I~ P~tit POIIC~t to mark his path.s or deferrals. There is some "full speed," some quasi-infinite speed,
those left as tokens on graves by Central European Jews), I leave unspoken creating synchronies, political contemporandties, for e'l:ample, even
(ruJ; that is, I leave it to )'ou IVOllS.I to read or reread on your own this "ignoble" ones. but above all there is the reprieved. absolute "at
eXlraordinary work of interwoven writing, this more~than-sublime text. the 53me time" of a being-together outside the network. as "dyad,"
Four times, then-according to the rhythm he chose to divide these which dudes any third party (Miroir). ThaI is "toj" lyoul; I'll come
"Translator's Notes." back to this.
The import:lnce of the telephant: for this speed.... loving
caress, diligem too. 1 wonder whc:mer full speed, your "hollow
5. As io Grimm's "Iiaruel and Gr"'td.~ k P"tit P()U«t dw!» pebblQ tQ mark hi' Pillh cc:rtainty" (SimJllwnliri) of possible simuhanc:ity, so to speak de-
and w avoKl ~coming k>st~ Tnl1U. livered from diff/ronu. $pirit«l away from every "d~"-tcrm, is to be
tak~n asa free-ness or frankness, a freedom :nleut exJ>ttled by the I pause allhis toi t"t mo" MyoU and me,M which you dissect ... since
c:aptive of delays and postpon~m~nts, or else 10 bl= taken as a fordng the body that's yours and the body Ihat's minc, al which neither
of desire by desire itself, the effacing of its encore, a ruse of patience you nor' can arrive. we will nOI gClthere, we will arrive:1l the
simulating absolute impatiencc. Resolution. It would dceide, cut. othcr body. It would be ;lOothc:r country. Sunk in darkness? To
With )'ou and me, it's decish'c, cutting. (T, 53) translate. \Vherc we won'l sec each other. or our!iClves, or the IWO
of us together. Whue we: will only see each other, or ourselves.,
3. Entid~d 'Toi" TVoul, the third time thus cuts; :and if iu title is,
sinking, being blinded. un-wriling, delivered up to tn.nslators
directly, if I rna)' say so, toi, it does all it can to avoid, as you will hear,
and Ihose who guide across borders. Wt: are -ourselves," or -wc,"
a "thesis on the toi.'" In a few lines th:1t I should not have the right to
only posthumously, You and I awail ii, or ourselves, Ihere. NOt
isolate in this W:1)', I wish [Q underscore the theme of simulation and
thaI langmlge will C\'Ct sink or go under, It is on the boat ofevery
simulacra, the question of right ("the right to address one another as toi"),
transit. BUI it ii' ils im:lgc in me.... You sign thisdcsire, with my
and aoon:: all the appe:aranee of a Mwe" as "posthumous we," :a phrase. that
sign:uure> (7; 55)
should, I believe, not only make us hear the testamentary postmortem
but inhale IlllImn-) in ad\'anee the humus, the soil, the earth, the humid 4· It is in the last bre:nh of this text, in the fourth tim~, entitled
earth, humility, the human and the inhuman, the inhumed, which will "Mourning," thaI one can find al once the words I said I wanted to
resonate:\I the end of the text, in what will be the fourth time and last act. cite-"mollrning," "keep," Mery," "faith"-and the phrase that is now
Jean-Fran~ois writes: slightly more. but still not totally, recomcxtu:tlizable:, "there shall be no
mourning," which keeps silent 1st' lQitl, mure, and keeps it down lSt'terre]
Fn.nknas or simulation: the opposition must be plared offldijounJ between humus, inhuman. and inhumed. I tear a few more strains from
againSlludf. If wesimul<lltc suffering it is because we sufTer from this mourning lam~nt. Jean-F'ran~ois writes:
thc infinite possibility ofsimulation (S,mulatiow).. .. , mcan: none
of these part.ners could be you Itoil. MOo we have [he right to ad· "A sign fronl you, my e\'\':ryday longue. What I cry for. To u:ms-
M
drc:ss one another aSloi?" (Droit). ... You are the one who signs, late (5igr/('). Already translated: )'011 make me cry, I cry after
only you. MThese words th:lt , addrw only to you but that you sign, you, I shall always cry, righl up to the arrival. There shall be no
of which you arc thc address«, Ihe address-she, or as he would say: mourning. Memory Will bl= preserved. -My luck: rnallhe only form
the: mother~ ($m/), . .. With you, '" w<lnt to takc my time, all my of unhappiness would be 10 lose, not 10 preserve. mcmory." ...
ti~" (Vit~), )'OtJ lroi) who "give me tim~ and tell me whal it's like It is not for this supposed loss thai I cry, but for and after your
OUt at Ihe lime lit" umps qu'itfaitl, if yousn whot I man lin English prescnce,languagc, n~ver deserted. Which will always have Mp-
in originalJ" (Temps). pened as long 3$1 wrile, outof pl:lcc. This gap gives Sp3Ce: and
There is immortality between you and me, whom wc shall time for tears.. , . You are asked: ~Wc shall eff3cc th\': harm. MThe
s« dic (lmmortalit/). To tunslate. BUI you were translating your· Mrm done by writing. BUI dan13ges call only for litigation 3nd
sellt?) wThc essenlial thing lisl mat we expect, you :and I. the arrival, a decision, not forgiveness, which eKapcs rul\':S and sclllcm\':OIs.
that we awail onc anomer, you and I. upon arrival, in the languagc Forgi...eness wouJd forgive only Ihc wrong. BUI il is not a gesture
of our country~ (Traduire), To tr:mslate, again. , am uying. But I'm and mak\':$ no geslures. ForgivenC$S Mhas :Ilre:.tdy let it Ithe wrong I
afraid of forcing, of forcing you and forcing me into a thC$is of and ofitsdf efface iuclf: what I call writing." This is why there is no
on the roi. ' .. "We shall see us die. MYou will see me and I will see proof ofir. As I write. you do me wrong and I forgive you, but
you die. Or, dying will come IQmverlJ] 10 the two of us togelher, and it will nevu be pro\'en, not cven by my tears. As you haunt my
we will know illogether. Coming ashorc ILD riwl ... (T. 53~4) writing, wilhoul holiness asking an)·thing, 'do you wrong. Do
you forgive me? Wbo will prove it? Mut\':, ... That is why thete
And later (but I suffer so much at not being able, for lack of is Ihi$ gap, Mmc:lancholy," a wrong exceeding d«la~ forgi ...eness,
time, to read everything. rushing as I must toward a certain posthumous consuming :Jnd consummating ilsclfin .....riting. Of which you have
"we M
);
110 need. Thai is why mourning is never lif,ed, the fire never pUI
out. II is vain to count on acquitting yoursdfofyour unscizability must therefore be: killed, and that is what is worse than death. For, if
through incineration ... through the: consumption of writing in an death can be exterminated, it is because there is nothing to kill. Not
immediate fire: and by a signature: in cinders. To satirize. to singe even the name Jew" (D. 101).
thi.s signarizing In"gm~'~ aUe Jip"iel. Cinders are still maUer. 3· And between these. two occurrences, this third one: "Would this be a
I sign in humus. Of the inhuman. I bear witness inhumed. False case ofa dispersion worse than the diaspora, the dispersion ofphrasesl"
witnesses. "'love only faitb. or rather, in faith, it! irrdigiouslrial." (D, 9Bl There is indeed another name for me .....orse, for the "worse than
(7; 55-S6) death." And when, while preparing for this gathering, I read the tide
I still do not know how to interp((:t th~ words. I do not know how chosen by Jean-Luc Nancy. "From One End to me Infinite" ID'unefin
to idcntify them through, in. and despite thc dispersion of phr3S(:S that he d I'infi"jl, 1 assumed that he would cite the fonowing phrase, which I
claims to be worse than a diaspora, My fragmentary citations will have simply recall here without comment: "What makes death nOt yet the
only made things worse. I do not know how to interpret "there shall be no worst is its bemg not ,he end but only the end of the finite and the
mourning." followed at a distance by the phr.tse "that is why mourning is revdation of thc infinite. Worse than this magical death would be a
never lifted, the fire never put out." The impossibility of interpreting, of death without re\'ersal, an end which is simply the end, including the
deciding about or disposing of th~ phrases no doubt comes from their end of the infinite" (D, S9).
radical, irrew=rsible dispersion, as well as from their forcver undetcrmined
addresstt, whether public or not. In aU these pages, which 3re :llso powerful readings of Hegel and
Th~ "Translators Notes" ha\'e the remarkable status of a re.sfJOtlH. Adorno, but above all, meditations on Auschwitz, on the impossible
They wish to breathe or exude the "ycs"'ouil of a response that appeals possibilityofbearing .....itness, on sUfvivaland the "WC,":I "wc" that may go
to a certain "we" [nousl. a response with, however, no assignable or beyond, as Lyotard says so wdl, what hecalls a "tralUCendentai illusion" for
demonstrable addressee. And yet I do nOt consider this impossibility of which the "we" would be:l "vehiclc" (0,99), the I:tw ofthe magical death,
interpreting, which is nOt 3 hermeneutical impotence, to be an evil. It is the that is, the "be'lUtiful death," is opposed to the aaprion of Auschwitz.
very ch::tnce of reading. Beyond all destination, it bespeaks the very destiny In both cases, I will venrure to say. there is no--there shall be no--
or fate of mourning. It offers this destiny over to thinking. specifically to mourning. But for diametrically opposed reasons. What Lyourd calls the
thinking, if that is possible, better man an interpretative decision or an "beautiful de:tth" or the "magical death" is the one that gets meaning,
assignable destin:uion could have. and gets it as an order given to an addressee. It is a beautiful death
For if, to reassurc myself in this deciphering, I were to .s«k some because the order thus given to a dying or mortal addressee, the verdict
hdp from The Differend, written a dttade beJore these. "Translator's addressed to him, signifies to him that this death has meaning because
Notes," which arc themselves about 3 decade old, I would be: able to it is prqmzble, and since it is preferable, it is, in sum. as if it did not
find there 311 the neceSS3ry premises for a thinking of this destiny without take place and thus can do without mourning. This is the case, Lyotard
destination. And p..uticul3rly when it is a question of us, of you and I, Th~ says. when the private authority of dIe family, the political authority of
Diff"end already put to work the very language of these "TranslatOr's the St3te or the party, the authority of religion, gives its members, thaI
Notes," thus confirming yet again that these NoreJ, and their "there is, its identifiable addressees, the order to die the prefer3ble death, the
shall be no mourning," cannOt be confined to their context or apparent order to prefer death: "Die rather th:ln escape" (Socrates in prison) (in
destination. the background 3re the analyses of the Apology and the Meneremu in the
Hence. in closing, let mc come back to the three occurrences of the "Plato Notice," often with reference to Nicole Loraux's work); "Die rather
"worse" I mentioned eddier: than be ensl:l\'ed" (the Paris Commune); "Die rather than be defeated"
(Thermopylac, Stalingrad).
I. Adorno's phrase: "since Auschwitz, fearing death means fearing some· This beautiful death does nOl, in the end, I would say, take place,
thing worse than death" (D. 88). insofar 3S it claims to m:lke sense:. to remain meaningful. oriented by an
2. Lyotard's phrase some thirtccn pages later, which, commenting upon end that goes beyond it, and I.hus by an economy, e\'en if it is an economy
Adorno's phrase, 5.1.ys of the death sentence at Auschwitz: "This death of sacrifice: "Die with a view to ... ," and you shall not die. And LyOt.:lrd
:.136 CIIAl>Tltl fOUl,..IUI
concludes: "Such is the Athenian 'beautiful death; the exchange of the "mourning" does not appear at all, If Ihere are no grounds for mourning,
finite for the infinite, ofthe~KhaJo" for the ufos: the Die in orJernoJ JoJi~" if therc arc no grounds for ha\ling to go through mourning these tWO
W, '00). ordercd deaths, it is for diametrically opposed reasons. In the "beautiful
But "this is not the ca~ for 'Auschwitz'" (D. 100), LyOlard nOles, death," it is because death has meaning: it brings to fulfillment a life full
taking pains--.and with very good reason-toput qUOlation marks around of meaning: this death gets over itself. overtakes or sublatcs itself, in this
this name that also names the "extinction of that namc" (D, 101), but meaning. In the ca.~ of" Auschwitz," on the comrary. "wor~ than dcath,"
which of course-and this is an enormous problem th:n I must leave open it is the extinction of the very name thai forbids mourning. gi\'en that this
here--<an play its role of absolute exception only if it I~ the quotation murder of the name constitutcs the vcry meaning of the order "die," or
marks that make it a met()Oymical or CJ(emplary name, and as such nOl "that he die," or even "that I dic."'n both ofth~orders,the ..there shall be:
exceptional, able to stand in for other possible"Auschwines," At any rate, no mourning" is implicitly so radical that Ihc word "mourning" does nOt
"Auschwitz." vo'Ould be the exception to the law of the "beautiful death," even need to be: uttcrcd. Which would seem to suggest that whene\'er the
This is indicated in .st.-ction 157, whose title is in fact "Exceplion," and word is uttered we: are pcrhaps--wc are no doubt--dealing with another
which begins: "'Auschwitz' is the forbiddance of the beautiful death" (D. case, where mourning isalleast possible enough to be:avertcd by the "there
100), It is an exception firs! of all because the victim is not the addressee shall be no mourning."
of the order-and let me notc in JXIssing that all the dealhs in question I would like to inscribe here, 3S a programmatic indication of a
here are deaths following an order, "Die," which means that Ihese detltlu reAcction to come, a referencc to twO ofJean-Fran~ois Lyot:'lrd's remarks,
(wherher beautiful of not) arc never, as one says of illnesses, natural- :'Ipparently quite distant from one another (I), 106, 56), which, without
supposing that an illness is ever natural. The choice here, if I may usc rcferring to mourning, givc us a great deal to think about the cmplY place
this word precisely where there is no longer a choice, is berween "Die, Icft to mourning in The Diffrrffld and about what is worse than death. It
I decree it" and "Thai slhc die, I decree it'" or 'That I die, slhe decrees is as if--or at leas( this will be the hYJX>thesis of my reading-mourning
it" (D. 100), Both of these deaths, which are no more nalural than any implied eithcr a litigation conccrning damagcs,or dse some kind ofwrong,
other, are also forms of putting to death, ordered deaths, whether we are that is, somc differend, Without litigation or diffcrend, there can be no
t:l!king about Socrales, Athenian soldiers. World War II, or Auschwitz, mourning. In a way, then, what is worse than death, as wdl as non-
But between Ihese twO dealhs. th~ two "Die's," thc heterogeneity is mourning, is that there flQI ~ven be a JijJ~d, As if what is "worse than
absolute, so that "Auschwitz." cannot, exa:pt through an abuse of rhetoric, death" were what comes, if nOt to cra~, al least to marginaliu: or subor-
~ turned into a "beautiful death," or a sacrificial holocaust in which the dinate the nevertheless uncrasablc limit between ::I wrong and damages,
Jcwish people comes to replacc Isaac on Moul1l Moriah. "Rhetoric" is differend and litigation: 3n alternative or alternation that, as you know,
the word L)'ourd uses in his analysis of th~ lerrifying hypotheses in thc marks the rhythm, pulse. and heartbe'.tt of this grcat book. The DijJerenJ.
p.1ragraphsaboutAbrahalll (161,170), which I wish' could have meditated I lake the risk ofskctching this hypothesis aboul mourning b.1sed on
upon at grealcr length, what Lyotard himself says, without mentioning mourning, about a certain
In all these p3ges on the RemIt. on the "after Auschwitz.," on the dud, or even divorce, between"Auschwitz" and "Israel." In establishing
witness, the third p..uty, the survivor, on the enormous question of the damages that can be repaired, in thinking (h:'lt it can trans!:nc thc wfong
"we," on the tWO "Die's," thc two orders of dying and thc two orders that into dalll:'lges and the diffcrend into a litigation, which is and rcmains
say "Die," that of the beautiful death and that of~ Auschwitz," mourning impossible, it is as if Israel had wished to go through mourning, The
never comes up. "Mourning" never appears, and thc word "mourning" has State of Israel would have soughlto signify lhe mourning of Auschwitz,
no grounds for appearing, As if Ihe phrase "there shall be no mourning" prcciscly there where mourning has no meaning. All I can do hcre is
had already be:en heard, and taken into account, in its most extreme juxtapose: thcsc twO series of statemcnts from Thl! Diffrrend:
consequences, I wouldn't swear lhat Ihe word "mourning" never appears
I. First," Auschwi!?.":
in the whole book.. but ifitdoes, it is not in the p3sS3gesdealing with death,
the beautiful detuh. or the dealh that is worse: than death, The word and Between the SS :md the lew r.hcre is "Oll'~~n II diffcrcnd, because
concept "death" appear twice in the index ("death," "be:autiful death"), but there is not even:l. eommon idiom (Ihat of a tribunal) in which
2]8 CIlj\PTIa FOURTEEN
damages could a,least be formulated, be !.hey in place of a wrong. But we know thaI this "do not dk," which nothing will silence,
Thus there is no need ofa trial, not even a p.'lrodic Qne. (This is not even when it would not be he.·ud, even when it would forgo mourning, is
dle case with the communists.) The Jewish phrase has not taken thr~ateneJ on all sides; threatened by the "beautiful death" itself, with its
place. (0. 106; I emphasize Moot even") consoling image, like the figure ofa life that was indeed fulfilled, successful,
2. Now Jsrael, fhe state that bears or takes this name, signifying something so full of accomplishments and reminders left for future generations, so
like the mournful mis~understandingof this truth, namely, the absence abundant in meaning and work in the service of thinking, of loved ones,
of a common idiom and the impossibility of translating a wrong into of humanity, and so on, but threatened tOO by the always open risk of a
damages, Some fifty pages earlier, we read: uworse than death," the disguised extinction of the name alw:Jys lying in
wait. For there are a thousand different ways, as we know, for a name to
By forming the Smte of Israel, the survivors transformed the wrong
vanish; it can lose itself at the point where there would no longer even be
into damages and the differend into a litigation. By beginning fO
a differend, as in the "nol even a differend" I just recalled. But the n3me
speak in the common idiom of public international law and of
can also be effaced, in another perversion of the worse, pr«isdy insofar
authorized politics, they pUt an end to the silence to which they
as it is kept or keeps itself back, through what it keeps for itself or through
had been condemned. Bur the reality of the wrong suffered at
the one who keeps it, or insofar, as we read in Sigtlt:<t Malraux, in the l:ist
Auschwitz lno quotation marks herel before the foundation of Utis
chapter entitled "Witness," as "the names remain," or what remains is the
state remained and rem3ins to be established, and if cannot be esfab-
USignature from beyond lhe tomb. As always. The onl)' one.'~ Names keep,
Iislled because it is in tbe n:Hure ofa wrong nOlIO be established by
watch over, b\u the~spectr.'11 senrincls remain always as threatened as they
consenslls. (D, 56)
atl: threatening; "In and around names, vengeance is on the prowl," $3)'s
I now Want to recall something obvious throughout: the abscnce of The DijfemuJ (D, 56) on the same page as the passage :.Ibout israeli cited
the word "mourning," the alternative between the "beautiful de:uh" and a moment ago. Consequently, would this threat be "worse than death"f
the exception of the "worse than death," are related to an institution of Would the "worse than d~th" be this, and worse than the worstf Would
ordered death, to some imperious verdier: udie," "that he die," or "that what is worse than the worst be this threar of the contamination ofall these
I die." Should we deduce from this that mourning, the experience of deaths, and all the forms that might be mken on-.1nd yet alsodenied-by
mourning or simply the hypothesis and the naming of mourning--even this mourning of mourning?
if it is only to say "there shall be no mourning"-are reserved for the This is why, in his ''Translator's Notes," Jcan~Franliois linked with
endurance of .. death th:n, while;: never natural, would nevertheless not sO much insight his reAection on mourning to the question of wrong and
be murder, not the terrifying r~uh of some order to die, whether given forgiveness. Faced with the thre-.ll of equivocation, forever pressing and
to oneself or the other? Yes, of course, and this is precisely wh:u we are necewr)', between all these orders ofdeath, We are all, we,Jean~Fran~ois's
discussing tonight. Whether we accept it or nOt, whether we endure it or friends~ in the impossible-some may even sa)' unforgivable-situation of
not, whether We name itor not, mourning here does not follow a.n order to those third parties or surviving "we's" who must survive not only death
die. Ifmourning does still follow, hypothetically, some order, wish, prayer, but the disappearance or disqualification of the "witness," ofa certain ~'we"
request, or desire, it would instead be,stilltonight.a "do not die" or a ..that and a certain "third."
he not die." And the "there shall be no mourning" could thus be heard In the guise of a conclusion, I would like to read an extraordinary
as a response to, or echo of, some "do not die," "thtu he not die." To go passage, the passage to hyperbole in The DijJ"~d. in theapparemly furtive
into mourning, on the contrary, and even more so, to organize mourning, moment in which, so to speak, Jean-Fr:lIlliOis Lyotard signs his book b)'
would always run the risk of confirming the order or the wish ("die," "be giving us 10 think what is perhaps here thought, the very thinking of
dead," "stay dead," ';that you die, that you be or remain in death"). (We thought. It is also precisely the moment of the leap l,award a thinking
should never forget, however, that wh.athappens to us, what comes toaJJcct "we" that signs, seals, leaves its seal and its legacy, goes on to survive or
us, at the death of (he friend, goes beyond the order. the wish, even (he
promise, beyond any performative project. As docs any event worthy of 6. Jeon-Frant;W Ly<)tard,Si,>ml', }.Ialrrtux, lnoM. R<1berl Harvey (Mhmrapolif; Univcuity
this name.) of Minnnola Pr..... Im),~,~.
live on beyond all the "we's" Ihat it demystifies. This "we" will have been. doing this. "we~ effected whal ~we" were looking for, a we (Ihis
in the end. the only one to have inspired me tonighl. to have whispered to time. neither italics nor quotation marksl, In looking for it, this
me. everything' s;ly and address to Jean-Fran{-ois. to those who love. him we was looking for i1.5df. II is expressed then al the end of the
and those whom he loves. The fact that Lyotard ahnOSI always (though mo\'ement as it had effected itself since Ihe beginning. For, without
there are exceptions) puts this ··we" into quotation marks does nOt mean the presupposition of this permanence ofa thinking "we," there
that he is neutralizing it. It is simply being torn out of an all·too-<:3sy would have been no movemCnl in search of;l whole:. This we is
understanding ofso many other "we's" and given O\'er to a type ofthinking certainly nO[ the: totaliz:lIion ofthe 1'5, the you·s. and the s'he·s in
that should be called reRection, the reRexive thinking of an impossibility. play under the name of"Auschwitt." for it is true th:l.t this name
What happens when one thinks and reRects an impossibility? 15 this designates the impossibility ofsuch a loulizarion. Instead, it is the
possible? For instance, so close to the ex~rience of the worse, whenever it rdkcti\·c mO\ement Oflhis impossibility. thal is., the dispersion that
becomes nearly impossible to distinguish betwttn a wrong and damages, comes to self-consciousness and is subl.ated OUI of the annihilation
betwttn a differend and a litigation? Does thisexpc:rience ofthe impossible and into lhe affirmation of IlOthingnen. The we composed at least
become possible? What possibility is there for another u.>e announcing of I who write and you ,,'00 re:ad. (D, 102-3)
itself to us through the impossibility of the ax? And even through the There it is. Running the risk of what TIlt' Difft'tmti elsewhere calls
-affirmation of nothingness"?
the "laS( phrase" (D. II), that is what I would have wanted to say. Perhaps
Here is the passage to the hypc:rboleof the "we." 'tcomes at the end of
I was still speculating.
section 1'58, entitled -Third Party?" in the course of a powerful reRection
on the coexistence oftwO secrets and on the troubling equi\'alence betwttn
And yet would I ha\'e stopped addressing myse.lfto you?
the third and fourth party. These pages dese.rve a much closer analysis
To "us"l
than I can provide here. As you will hear, this thinking I « is prt'$U~ti Would I be abusing fiction or desire if I were to say to Jean~Fran{-ois,
by the critique, by the overcoming or subl:ning [rt'/t't/Qnu! disappearance here and now. 35 if for the first time in my life, still not daring to address
of all the other Wt's. Rhetoric here develops an "obj«tion" attributed to
him as lu, still k~ping to the VOtlJ, k~ping it, k~ping him faithfully alive
the "speculati",e." But it is unclear whether the speculative gains or loses
in our vow, there it is, Jean-Fr3n~ois, this is what, I tell myself. I today
itself here, whether it wins or loses its head. This thinking t()(' survives
would have wanted to try to tell you.
all the l«S it thinks. It thus ind~d r~mbles a Hegelian presupposition
(VonJUSU't::"lmg), a speculative Wt'. But does it not also survive this survival~
Doc=s it not survive as survival itself, through a subtle and infinitesimal
excess of thinking? l:Xxs it not rather think the speculative, even before
thinking in a speculative mode? A beautiful risk to run, once again, at
the instant of death. With or "without a resuh" ("Without a Result" is the
title of the following section, which I would have wanted to follow step by
step). Let us listen:
LOUIS AL THUSSER
1959 MonusqWnt: Ul poii'''ll~ ~t flristo;re_ Paris: Prc:s5eS Univcrsitaires de
France. English mnslation. "Monltlquieu: Politics and History," uans.
Ben Brewster. In ?oIllia t",J History: Mon:aquieu. RoIUJl!QI4 H~l and
Marr. London: 'ew Left Books, 197:J·
1965 Po", Marr. Puis: Maspero. Reprint, Paris: La Decouverte, t9!J6. English
translation, For Marr, trans. Ben Brewster. London: New Left Books,
-¢o.
1965 l...ire k (A,piJilI I. With Plcrrc Macherey and Jacques RanciCrc. Paris:
Maspcro.
196s Lire k up;",' JI. With Etienne Balibat and Roger Esrablet. Paris:
Maspcro. Later appeared as Lire k Capitol. by LO\lls Althusse-r, Etienne
Salibar ct al. Edited by Etic:nnc Salibar, Pierre: Bravo Gala. and Viles
DurOUx. P:uis: PrC$$CS Unillcrsitaircs <k France, 199'>- English transla-
tion, &oJing CApillll, mllu. Ben Brewster. London: New Left Books,.
'97"-
1969 Uni,,~d fa philosophU'. Paris: M:upc:ro. 2d cd., rev., 1972. Engluh translll-
uon,Lrninand Philosophya"dOth~~ys. trans. Ben Brewster. London:
New Left Books, 1971. Reprinted in Phi/awplty ,,,,d th~ S/'O"lIln~UI
Philomphy ofthe XinrtislJ and Otlter Essoys. London: Verso, 1990·
1973 Rtponse d Joitn Lewis, Puis: Maspc:ro. English translation in &soys in
Self-Criticism, trans. Crahame Lock, London: New Left Books, 197'6·
Reprinted in £ssoys J'n ItkoIogy, London: Verso, 1984'
1974 Phi/t)roplti~ rt philOlOpltir J/'Ontank des sawnts, Paris: Maspc:ro. English
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1974 ElementS d'autocritique. Paris: H3cheue. English translation, Essays in
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1976 Pasilions. Paris: Edil,ions SociOllcs.
197 8 Cequ; nt' ptul plus dum-JDns I~ part; communisle. Paris: Maspero. English
lranslation, MWhat MuSt Change in the Pany,R trans. Pauick Camiller,
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• .1.... _
•• j
a.al.IOGUI'mu 145
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1994 &rill philosophiql/N ct po{;tUjucs. Vol.Edited by Fran~ois Malheron.
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'975
Fran~is Matheron. Irans. Gregory Elliott. New York: Verso, 1999. Roland Bartha by Roland &rthes. Irans. Richard How:lrd. Ne..... York:
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I 99J-95 (kulllYlcompUtcs. Edited by Eric Marty. Vol. I. '94>--'965' Paris: Swil, La phik»oplti~ m'tiq~ d~ 1<Jlnl: DoctTin~ dl's facultlt. Paris: Presses Uni~
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'995·
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1970 Ma~cstmon. Paris: Gallimard.
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1975 lA rho/utian structurak. Paris: Grassel. :ui cd.• Paris: IXn6cI-Gonthier, Ninuclt~. Paris: Presses Uni\'ersiuires de France.
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u lkrgJOr1isrM. Paris: Preuc:s Unwersiuires de France. English transla-
Iknoisl. Arnold Pomerans.and Robert Olort:nshaw. New York: St. Mar-
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1975 Tyrannll'du logos. P3ris: Minuit. wed., Paris: Presses Uni~ersitaires de
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<*n~rale d'Editions, 197;f. English translation. Masochism ("Coldness
1976 PalNlM POUT une Europe Jlfunte. Paris: Den6cI·Gonthier. and Cruelty," by Ddeuzc; -Yenus in Furs," by I~d Sacher.Masoch),
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1977 (JaNelle. TCllU by Jean-Marit: Benoist and John E. Jackson. Paris: Diffbt:n« et ¥ition. Paris: Pressc::s Universitaire:s de France. English
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1978 I.LJ f10UWaux ".inlllires. Paris: Hallier-AJbin Michd. Columbia University Press. 19'91'
1978 Un singuli" progrumme: Le alrtUllJQl Ju Prognrmml' C'Of/'Imun. Paris: Spirwza~r k prohllmc d~ ruprr:ssion. Paris: Minuit. English translation,
Presses Universilllires de Fr:mce. Erprwionism in Philosoplty: SpmoZll, trans. Martin Joughin. New York:
1979 Cllroniq~dt:JIromposiliQ1l du PCF. Paris: La Table Ronde. Zone. 1990·
198 I LM ghtirution satTifik Paris: Den6ct French AC3demy award. Logiquc du snu. Paris: t.tinuit. Reprint, Paris: Union Gener31e d'Edit·
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1982 udnJOird'opposition: Chrcmiques 1¢1-1¢:lptlrut:S dans ~u Qrwtidit:n d~
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Spino:Jl: Phi/osopltj~ pratiquc. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. 2d
1983 FigurrI dll bt.troque. Edited by Jean~M.arie Benoist. Paris: Presses Unlver- cd., 1911 I. English translation,Spino::a: Practical PhikMophy, trans. Robert
silaires de France.
Hurley.S:an Francisco: Ciry LighlS, 1958.
1985 us owils d~ 10 libt:rtt, POIris: Robert LaffOnt.
C(lpitalism~ ~I schizo"hr!ni~. Yol. I, L'Ami-<kdipe. With F~lix CU:lttari.
1990 Aprb Gorba/(:h~lJ: Us t:!wm:es d'lIne Eu,* lib,~: Un dossier de 10 rrlJlle Paris: Minuit, 1972. English wlnslation, An/j.(kJipfls: Capillliism and
Poliliqtoeirlln7JQlionale. Edited by Jean~Marie Benoisl and Patrick Wajs- &hizophrt'ma, tr:lnS. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R. Lane.
man. Paris: La Table Rondt:. New York: Viking Press, 1977, Rcprim, Minneapolis: University of
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GILLES DELEllZE 1975 K(I!ka: POllr 14M lilllralllr~ minl''''t'. With F~lix GU:lttari. Paris: Minuit.
1953 Empiricism~ ~t subjectillirl: £noi sur la mUur~ humaine se/on Huml'. English translation, 1<Jl/1(tJ: TOUNlrd It Minor Literulurr:, trans. Dana
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Rhi~: Introduaion. With Feli:c Guau~ri. Puis; Minuit. Otr 1M Lin~, essays, ed. Wlad Godzieh. Minneapolis: University of Minnesou Press.
tt:l.ns. John Johnston. New York; Scmiote:ct{e). 1983. 1983·
1977 Dialcgun. With Claire Parnet. Paris: flammarion, 19n. English ft:l.m- Alkgonu of Rau/ing: Figural unguagt in RoussalU, Nli:tzscl,,:, Rilk,t, and
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The RhttoricQfRomunlicism. New York: Columbia University Press.
SuperposilKms. With Carmelo lkne. Paris; Minuit.
Tht Rrsislance 10 Th~",. Edited by Wl3d Godzich. Minneapolis: Uni-
Capilalisme n schizophrtnif'. Vol. ~ Milk plateaux. With Felix Guart...ri.
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English translatlon, A ThOUSDnJ Plauaus: Capitalism and &hizophrmia,
trans. Bri:1O M~uumi. Minneapolis: UnivenityofMinnesou Prcs.s, 19B7. W41rtimt jourtl4lisrn. s9J~t943' Edited by Werner Hamacher, Neil
Heitz, 3nd Tom Keenan. LillOOln: University of 'ebrasb. Press.
FfTlncis &mn: Log"l~ lk fa snISIltion. Paris: La Difference. English
tt:l.nsl~tion.l>.Jniel W. Smilh, UnivenityofChiago Ptess. forthcoming. Cnricol Wnij"fS, 195]-19]8. Edited by Lindsay Walers. Minneapolis:
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Cin/ma-I: L'imoge-mbUl-'Nnnll. Paris: Minuit. English transl31ion. Cin-
tma I: The MOf,'Nnml-lma~, trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara 1993 RQmiZnlicism ilnd C011ltmporary Criticism: The Gauss Sem,nor and Oth.:r
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Cinbna-z L'image-Iemps. Paris: MinuiL English Hanslluion, Ci"f'ma 1/: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
The Time.lmuge, tram. Hugh Tomlinsoll and Roben Galeta. Minneapo- Amhelic Idrology. Edited by Andrzej W:uminski. Minneapolis: Univer~
lis: University of Minnes0t3 Press. 19S9. sity of Minnesota Press.
Fot~u1l. Paris: Minuit. English translation. FOUClJull, mns. Sd.n Hand.
Minoeapolis: University ofMinnesora Press, 1988. MICHEL FOUCAULT
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1..Libniz and tM &roq~, trans. Tom Conley. Minneapolis: University of Revised lIS MtllaJie mentak: tt pI)'CAoiOfll~. Paris; Presses Universiuires
Minnesou Press, 1993. dt France. H}6:l.. English translalion, Mtntoill/~SJ aTJd Psychology, trans.
Plridls el V",i: u philosophie de FratlfOu CMu/n. Pari~: Minuit. Alan Sheridan. cw York: Harper and Row, 1976.
POIuporiers. t972-f9l)O. Paris: Minuit. English lranslation, Ntgolilliions, FoJi~ tt dlroison: HUloir~ de fa folie d I'iige classique. Paris: PIon. 2d
'972-1990> trans. Martin Joughin. New York: Columbi~ Univer~ity cd.• with a new preface and IWO 3ppendices, Histoire de fa foJie d rige
Pre5s, 1995. ckmique. Paris: Gallimard. Abridged English translation as Madness a"d
199' Qu'ul-aqlle la phikMophit? Wilh Felix Guattari. Paris: Minuit. English Cit/iliution: A History of Inmnit}' ill tht A~ of R~n. trans. Richard
lranslation. Whol Is Philosqphy? trans. Hugh TomlinliOn and Gr.lham How.ard. New York; Panlheon, 1¢S.
Burchell. New York: Columbi.3 Uni\'ersity Press. 1994. Raymond ROUSHl. Paris; Gallimard. English tt:l.nslation, lkath and th~
'99' "L·cpuisC." poslface to Samuel Beckett, Quizd et aUlrtS piku pour Iss ubyrinsll: The WorM of Raymond ROflssd, trans. Charles Ruas. Garden
IllhtLrion. Paris: MinuiLEnglish transilition in Essays Crilialltl11dCli11iazl, City, N.Y.: Doubleday. 19S6.
tt:l.ns. Daniel W. Smilh and Michael A. Greco. Minneapolis; UniversilY NaiSSilnce de la clinique: Un~ ardllologie du r~rd midiClJI. Paris: Prc.uc:s
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'993 Critiquuldi/lique. Paris: Minuit. English translation. Essays eriliall tlnd oftht Cli"ic: All Archarology of""ed;cIII Perception, ttans. Alan Sheridan
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Univc:rsity of Minnesota Press. 1997. Les mots tl la choses: Ufle tlrchiologie du st:i~nces humaines. Paris: Gal·
'995 Nt'immanenee: Une vie ... l'hiIWQph,e~, (scplembre I): 3-'7.
M
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Humtlll ScU-ncts. tr.ans. Alan Sheridlln. New York: Vintage. 1973.
PAUL DE MAN L'u"Aio/ogie du Sil/lOlr. Paris: Gallimard. English translation. The Ar·
'97 1 Blmd11us and IIISlghr: Ess4ys m tht Rktom: of COnl""porury CnllCISm. ~haeOIOgY of KnowlerJ~, trans. A. M. Sheridan. New York: Pantheon,
New York; Oxford Univc.rsity PrC$$.. ld I". cd.• wilh Ii"e additional 197a .
197' L'orOredudisa:mrs. Paris: Callim3.rd. English lransl:llion. "'Thc Discourse EDMOND lAStS
on L3.nguagc," Ir:l.ns. Rupert Swycr,:u an appendix to Tlte ArcltarolDflYof
'93 6 L'obscun'rl po/(~ble. Paris: Guy Uvis MarJo.
Knowledge. Also lransl;lIcd by Ian McLeod as "The Order ofOiscoursc.·
In UnlyinK lite Tm: A POSN'nl<turalis, Readn; cd. Robert Young. Ncw 1945 Preface to LeJlres de Max Jacob J Edmo"d Jahb. Alcxandria: Scarab&'.
York: Routledge, '9B1. 1947 Chansons pour k ~de l'ogrc. Paris: Picrre Scghers.
1973 em n'eSI pas 11M pipe. Monrpdlier: Fata Morgana. English transl:uion. 1947 &foru1 dert'Qu. Cairo: La Part du Sable,
Tnis Is Not a Pipe, trans. 'ames
Harkness. Berkeley: University of 194 8 Trois jilks de mon qUllrtin:. Paris: Guy Uvis ~la.no.
California Press. '983' 19"9 Lu ~J'~. Cairo: l...:I Partdu Sable.
'975 Surwilkr n puni,: NaissDna fk 111 prison. Paris: Gallimard. English 195 0 La <It[b ~'Oliu. Puis: Guy l...b'is MallO.
tr:lnslation, Disdplim: aru1 Punislt: The BirtJr of rk Prison, lraM. Alan 195 1 Les mo/J trat:ent. Paris: L' Age d'Or.
Sheridan. ew York: Panrhron, 19n.
195.3 Paul Eluard. Cairo: La P.m du Sable.
1976 Lu tJOIonti tk Jawir. Vol. I of Histoi" rk Ut saualiu. Paris: Gallimard. 1955 L'iroru Ju monJe. Paris: Pierre Seghen.
English translation, Tk History of Sexualiry: An InlrOliuaictr. Vol. I of Ie Utis mol Jnnnue: Pobnn, 19.fj-1957. Paris: Gallimarcl. :1d cd., 1975·
1959
T),e Hinory of &xUQliry, trans. Robert Hurley. Ncw York: Panthron, Preface by Gabriel Bounoure. A selection of th~ poems was translated
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198" L'usoge tics pkinrJ. Vol. :l of Hutoi" b Ut JUU4lirr, Paris: Gallimard. selection was included in /fTlJ~ IVtTe Anywlan'e bu/ lHsar: Tk SekckJ
English translation, T),e UgofPkMUre. Vol. zofTlte HistoryofSnualiry, p(NfflJof&JmonJ Jabh, lroms. Kellh Waldrop. Barrytown. N.Y.: Statton
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translation, The <Are of rite &lJ VoI. .3 of Tk History ofSawrlity. trans. U li",.e tk Yuk,el. VoI.:l of U li",.e tks qllmions. Paris: Gallimard.
Roben Hurley. New York; Panthron. 1986- U rl'!/OUrau li",.e. VoI. .3 of u lwort rks qW$ltmlJ. Paris: Gallimard. These
Posthumous Texts first thrrt volumes of Le 'lII,e rks quemons were: trans!art'd by Rosmarie
Waldrop as The Book of ~lwm, vol. 1 (The Boo.t of Qrwhons, The
1989 Rlsuml rks rouf'S au Co!/}ge rk Fmnu, 1970-lgB%. Paris: Julliard. Book ofYult!', Return to the Book). Hanover: W~le)'2n University Press,
199" DrtS et «n/J. Edited by Daniel Defen and Fran~is Ewald. 4 'lois. '99 1 .
Vol. I, 1954-69· Vol.:1, 1970-75· Vol. .3, 19]6-79- Vol. 1, 1980-88. Paris: 1967 Yarl. Vol." of Le livre des questions. Paris: Gallimard.
Gallimard. Selections from these volumes translated in Ess.:nliol Works EJ)'tl. Vol. 5 of Le li",.e des 'Ilia/ions. Paris: Gallimard.
1969
of Micltel FotlCllult as follow: Erhi'cs: Subjmiviry and Truth. Vol. , of
197 2 Ady. Vol. 6 ofLe li",.ebsquesrionJ. Paris: Gallimard.
Essmtiol Works ofMickl Foucault, 195-r/9B4- Edited by Paul Rabinow.
Translated by Ro~rt Hurley and others. New York: New Pr('ss, 1997. . (EI oU Ie demiel' livre). Vol. 7 of Le livre bs questions. Paris: Gallimard.
'973
Amhel;cs, MelW, Epistemology. Vol. 2. of Essnr/ial Works of Mida These last four volumC$ of & livre des qm:srimls ~re translated by
Foucault, '95-r1(}84. Edited by James O. Faubion. Translated by Robert Rosmarie Waldrop as Th~ lJook afQua/iom, vol. 2 (Yail, Elya, Ady. EI
Hurleyand others. New York: New Press, 1995.PoWl'!r. Vol. 3 of EssentinI or tht! Lasl BookJ. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1991.
Works of Mida Foucault, 195-rlfYl+ Edited by James D. Faubion. 'a mit son rollrs. Vol. I ofLr livre des mariti. Montpellier; rata Morgana.
Transillted by Peter T. Hoffer. New York: New Press. :1000. Le livre des ressembk1m;~s. Vol. I of Le li",.e des "mmblances. Paris:
1997 "//fallt Jifendre /P soriltr: COllrJ au College de FmtlCf', 1975-19'76- Paris: Gallimard. English uanslation, Th~ Book ofResmlhkmca. Vol. I of The
Seuil and Gallimard. Book of Resemhln'/Cf's, trans. Rosmarie Waldrop. Hanover: Wesleyan
University Press, '990'
'999 Ln anormau;x: Cours au CollJge de Fm1lt;e,197r-'975' Paris: Gallimard Le soup(On kd/sert. Vol.:l of Lelivredes "ssnnblances. Paris: Gallimard.
and $euil.
English translation,lntimlltions, the Desert. Vol. 2 of Th~ Book 0/ Rrn:m~
2001 L'!Ierm/l1eut;que du sujer; Cours au CoJl;~ de France, IgBt-HJ81 Paris: hlances, trans. Rosmarie Waldrop. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press,
Gallimard and ~viL 1991.
152 1I11'.'OCll"PIIIIlS
L'in~fJo('Qble r;na~r,,.. Vol. 3 of & lilJT~ J~ rt:JJembluflc~. Paris: Gal. 1993 Celll a ~flliC'U. Pans: Fourbis.
lima rd. English Iranslation, Th~ IMffauab/~, tJr~ Unf1"C~iwd. Vol. 3 of B/ilir un qW'}ljJien: Esquisse. Vol. 3 of u Ii,," des marges. Monlpcllie:r:
1997
TII~ 1kJokofR~~mblanc~,Wl.ns. Rosmarie Waldrop. Hanover: W«leyan Fata Morgana.
Universily Press, 199:1.
011 afInI au livre: Entr~titnS IIV« Marrel Cohm. Paris: Pierre: Bdfond.
SARAH KOPMAN
English tunslarion, From tll~ IRsm to tne 8001(: DiQIOf~S Ivitlt Mar«l
CoJ,m, tr:ms. Pierre Joris. Barrylown. N.Y.: Stalion Hill Press. '989. r97° r r
L'mfanutk art: Une intnpriratlOn tk estllhiquefuudimn~. Paris: Payot.
3d ed., Paris: Gali1&, 1985. English translation, me C4iIJllood ofArt: An
Rlcit. Montpellier: Fata Morgana. IlIrnprnarionofFreud'sAestheties, trans. Winifred Woodhull. New York:
& petir Ii,," ik III s~burrsiofl hon ae JOU(JrOfI. Vol. 1 of & lilllT J~ [,mitN. Columbia University Prcu, IgS8.
Paris: G:1l1imard. English lransJation, Tk Lillie Book of UnnupalN N~tzsc"ur fa mftaphort-. Paris: Pa)·at.:xi cd., Puis: Galilee, 1983. English
Subwrsion, trans. Rosmarie Waldrop. Stanford: Sunford UniversilY translation. Niazst:II~ Ilntl Mffllphor. trans. Duncan Large. Stanford;
Press, '996. Stanford University Press. 1993.
Dans III doubleJipnuJll~eau ait. VoI.:1 of& livretks margn. Montpc::lIier. Camertl obsom.: IkruJ~. Paris: Galilee. English translation, Ulmt:Tfl
1973
Fata Morgana. Both volum(:$ofLdivretksmarg~(s« 1975 for volume I) OhscufQ: Of IdeoJogy, trans. Will Stnw. Ith..ca: Cornell University Press.
were tnnslated by Rosmarie Waldrop as Th~ Book ofMargim. Chicago:
Unn'eNity ofChicago Press. 1993. '9911·
197i Quot" romans 41nal)tiqW1. Paris: Galilee. English lranslation, FrruJ lind
ulwreautliologue. Vot:1ofl..Llivrea~/imil~.Paris: GalJimard. English Fiction, trans. Sarah Wykc.s. Cambridge: Polity Prw, 1991.
tnlnslation, Tn~ Book ofDialogue. trans. Rosmaric Waldrop. Hanover:
Autobiogriffures: Du elu1r AlU" tlHOjfmlllllf. Paris: Christl<lln Bourgois.
Wcslqan University Press, 1l)88.
ui cd., Paris: Galil~. 1¢t.
Cc> qui m'II/'PiJ"imt. Paris: Marcel Duchamp.
Abnmlions: u tkwnir-fmlmt: oAugusu Cornu. Paris: Aubier-F1am-
l.-It P'lrrours. Vol. 3 of U livre'iks limlln. Paris: GalJimard. manon.
Aigle~tc~"e. Montpellier: Fata Morgana.
1979 Nerval: u charme d~ fa rfpftmon: l..«tur~ tk ~Sylf,i~." uusanne: L'Age
u livre'Ju /'Qrtag~. Vol. i ofu IivreJ~ limites. Paris: Gallimard. English d'Homme:.
ttllnslarion, Tne' Book of Slutr~, trans. Rosmarie Waldrop. Chicago: Ni~rud~ ~t III sane' pJrilosopll"lu~. Paris: Union ~n~rale d'Editions.
University ofChicago Press, 1989.
1979
Paris: Galilee, 1986.
1.A mfmoire et III main. Paris: Galerie Ldong. L'ff1igme' tk III fmlme: La femme Jam In rmd tie Freud. Paris: GaJilee.
L'lnfn-no di Dant~. Sienna: BarbablU. English tntnslation, Th~ Enigma o/Woman: Wonwfl in F"ud's Writings,
Un frnlflg~r all«, JOUI Ie' bnu, un livre tk pt1it format. Paris: Gallimard. ttans_ Catherine Poner. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, '985'
English transl:nion, A Fo"ign" Carryiflg in 'he Crook ofhis Arm a Tiny '98:1 u respect tI~s fmlmd (Kant ~t Roussalu). Paris: Galilee.
Boot trans. Rosmarie Waldrop. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 19 83 Comm~1I1 I'm sort;r? Paris: Galil~e.
1993·
'9 83 Un mltier impossible: Lecture tie' "ConSlfuctiOrlS en anaIYJ~. ~ Paris: Galil~e.
1990 Pog~s t1ouwlles. Sienn:l: Barb"blu.
19 84 Lectures de /ftrrida. Paris: Galilee.
'990 usellilIe' SQb/~: P~/i~/romplb~s. 1943-1988- P:lriS: Gallimtlrd.
19 8 5 Mtlancoli~d~l'art. Paris: Galilfe.
'99 0 LA mfmojr~ d~s mOts: COmm~nr je' lis Paul C~fan. PariS; Fourbis.
19 86 Pourqlloi r;t-on? Fretld ~t I~ mot d'nprit. Paris: G3lH~e.
'99 1 U lillre ae I'llospitalirt. Paris: Gallim:ud.
19 87 Paroles IUjJoqllffJ. Paris: GaliMc. English translation, Smorherd Wordr,
'99' Disir d'Uf/ commencem~nt, angoisu d'"ne s~flle fill. Montpc:lIier: Fata uans. Madeleine Dobie. Evanston: Northwestcrn University Press, lwH·
Morgan:..
COflwmorll: l..L Marchand de V~nise sous I~ sign~ d~ SalUm~. Paris: Galilee.
L.'c>nfer J~ Dante. Montpdlier: Fara Morgana.
Sot:rare(l). Paris: Galilee. English translation, Socrous: Fictions of Q
PoslhumouJ Tcxts PhiI01OP"er. Irans. Calhuinc Poner. hhaca: Cornell UniYersity Preu,
Un r~gllrtJ. Montpdlier: Faga Morgana. '9911·
'990 SItIt~liof11: De Same 4 H~/ite. Paris: Galil&:. Poche, '999- P.anial English translation, MTranscendancc and Height. K
'99' Don JUlin ou Ie refustklo dme. With Jean-Yves Masson. Paris; Galil&:. trans. una Chamer,Simon Critchley, and 'icholas Walker. Translation
,eviscd by Adriaan Pepcrzak in &sK PhiUJsophical Wn,ingJ, ed. Adri-
'99' "/l n'yo quekpremierptuquicoUu": Freud et la spiculation. Palis: GalMt'.
aan Peperzak. Simon Critchley, 2nd Robert Bernasconi. Bloomington:
'99~ Explosiorr I: De '''FLu Homo" de Nietuche. Paris: CaW&:. Indi.a.na Uni\'crsiry PreM. ,9¢.
'993 &pkmon 1/: Ln mfilnlJ de Met:z.de. Paris: Galil&-. TOIQ/iti n infi",: &sai sur r~ll. The Hague: Maninus Nijhoff.
'99' Rue 0rJmer. Rue !.ANt. Paris: Calil&:. English t~ns1ation, Rut! 0rrI.mer. Reprint. Lc Livre de Poche, 1988. English translation, TotiIl"y an4
Rue UNt, LranL Ann Smock. Linroln: University of l e braska Press• Infinity: An Essay on Eneriority. mln.$. Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh:
•9¢- Duquesne University Press, 1969.
u mipris des juifs: Nietz.s€he, ks juift, rontisbn.it~. Paris: Galil&:. DiJjit:ile libmi: EssDis Jur k juJaisrne. Paris: Albin Michel. 2d enlarged
Posthumous Texu ed., '976. Reprint. Le Livre de Poche, '~4' DijJUult Fr«dom: EssaYJon
Jtuitlism. ttans. Selln Hand. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1995 L'imposture de la bNuti. Paris: Galil&:.
'990·
1995 KLa mort conjur&." U part de I'OO/II:.th~5' QUil'" !«ttlrr:s JIllmutliqlld. Paris: Minuit. English [Jaosl:nion in Nine
1997 Sal'Qh Kofman. Edited by Fran~"Oi5C Collin and F~n~oi5C Proust. Us Talmudic Readings, trans. Annette Aronowicz. Bloomington: Indiana
uhim tiff GnJ. no. 3. Paris: Descartes & Cie, Unh'ersity PrelS, '990.
Hunwnisme de l'allln: homme. Montpel1ier: Fara Morgana. Reprinr,
EMMANUEL LEVINAS Lt Livre de Poche, 1972. Translated 1U three .separate essays without
"Avant-propos" in ColkdN P}'i/osophit:DI Papn-s. [Jans. Alphonso Lingis.
U /hEorie de fintuition dans la pMnominologie de Hussnl. Paris: Akan. The Hague: Kluwer Academic, '993' Reprint. Pittsburgh: Duquesne
Reprint, Paris: Vrin, 196j. English translation, The TJrnw'jo/lntuition in Univetsity Pre», 1998.
Husserrs PJrnJOmmoiogy, trans. AndreOriannc. Evannon: Northwestern
1974 AUJTmU'nt qu'l"e 0fI u,,~ekJ tk l'rnmce. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
University Press, 197.3. ad ed., 1995.
R~print, l..c Liv~ de Poche, 1991. English translation, OtJruwiH than
1934 Quelques rIft~ sur fa phi/osopilie J'},i,/bimu. Paris; PayO( t't Rivages, Ikingor Beyond Essma. mns. A1phoMo Lingis. The Hague.: Marlinus
coil. "Ri''ages poche,K '997. English translation, "Reflections on the NijholT, 1~1. Reprint, Pittsburgh: Duquesne UnivelSil)' Press., 1998·
Philosophy o{ Hitlerism," trans. Sdn Hand. CnticallfUluiry 17. no. I
1975 Sur Mauna Blaneltot. Montpellier. Fata Morgana. English uaosJarion,
(aurumn 1990): 63-7"
(hi Muuri« Blandot, in Proper Numa, lrans. Mich.ad B. Smith. Stan{ord:
1935 I:k fivasion. Published as a book. annotated by Jacques Rolland. Mont~ Stan{ord University Press, 19!)6-
pdlier: Fata Morgana. 198a. Reprint, Le Livre de Poche. '998.
'975 Noms prtJfJm. Monlpellier. Fara Morgana. English translation, P~
'917 De l'eristena Ii rnisJllnt. Paris: Fontaine:. Reprint, Paris: Vrin, 1973. Namn, tJans. Michad B. Smith. Sranrord: Stanford Uni,'ersity Press,
English translation, Erisuna lind ExinmlJ, trans. AJphonso Lingis. The .')96.
Htgue: Martinus NijhofT, 19]8. Du sat:ri au saint: Cinq nOlwelln !«tum talmudiquet. Paris: Minuit.
1977
U tempi I't l'aulre. Published as a book, Montpdlier: Fata Morgana, English uanslation, From fhe So(Ted to tJre Holy, in Nine Talmudic
1979· Reprint, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1983. English R~di"8J. trans. Annene Aronowicz. Bloomington: Indi:ana University
translation, Tim/' and Ihe Other, trans. Richard A. Cohen. Piltsburgh: Press, I 990.
Duquesne University Press, 1987. L'au-deld d" ~tJet, P:aris: Minuit. English translation, B~ltd 'he Vme,
En d!couvrunll'aiJtmu all« Husserl et Heidegger. Paris: Vrin. 2d cd., trans. Gary D. Mole. Bloomington: Indi3na University Press, 1994.
expanded, 1967. Partially [r.lnslared as Disa»erin8 &islma wi,h Hu.rserl De Dietl qui Vlmt Ii rid&. Paris: Vrin. English translation, OjGoJ Who
und Heitkgger, trans. Richard A. Cohen. EV2nSlon: Nonhwcslern Uni- Com('1 k) Mind, trans. Bertin:a Bergo. Stanford: SI.anford University Press,
versiry Press, 19I}8. ,,,,so
'953 Liberti ~I rommu"demmr: T"'~~e t'r MUlt'ur (originally published illique er in/in,: Dialogues till« PJrilippe Nr:mo. Paris: Fayard. Reprint.
in 1953 and 196.1). Cognac.: Fala Morgana, '994. Reprint, Lc Livrc de Le Livre de Poc.he, 1984. English lJ:a.flslation, Etl"o and Infinity:
256 IIILlOCIAI'HIU IlIlH.. locaAPIIIU 257
ConverUlions ttlith Pht'llppe Nemo, wans. Ridurd A. Cohen. Pittsburgh: Cercet/ux 'sorcelklll. Ulusuated by Jean Dubuffct. Paris: Galerie Jeanne
Duquesne University Press, Ig8S. Bucher.
TraIISfflu!mlt:e n intelligibiiJit. Geneva: Labor et Fides. English transla- 197 1 Jean Dllbuffrt: D/firs, dtportemenu, lielIX de haUljell. Lausanne: Webet.
tion, "Transcendence: and I ntelligibility," in Basic Philosophical Wrilings, Jean Dubuffit: SttUl/gie de /4 crtali01l. Paris: Gallimatd.
1973
cd. Adria:m T. Peperzak, Simon Critchle:y, and Roben Bernasconi.
'973 Cn': &/4t el phtlJes. Paris: G:'IIlimard.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, I9¢".
t975 Les logogrammes de Christian Dotrement. Paris: Fall.
Hors sujet. Montpdlier: F:1Ia Morgana. Reprint, Le Livre de Poche,
1997. English translation, OlltsiJe the Subject, trans. Michael B. Smith. 1976 Nouvelles des bres et des pas. P3ris: Gallimard.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. 197 8 Chanl! d~ perpttudle wnue. Paris: Gallimard.
A I'hellre des rlaliolts. Paris: Minuit. English translation, In the Time 19 80 1..0 pe;mure ul'oeuvre et finigme dlt corps. Paris: GaHimard.
of NOlions, trans. Miehael B. Smith. Bloomington: Indiana University 1980 Michel DrgllY: La poursuite de Ut poIIie 10UI rotiire. Paris: Gallimard.
Press, 1994- Vile J'illtbieur (~drame de fa naimm« du globe). Monunorency: Carte
19 86
1990 1ft I'ob!itlnuion: Entretien a~ Fram;oise Armengalld d propos de I'oeuvre Blanche.
deSomo. Paris: La Difftrence:. Excetpts translated in ,IOn Obliteration:
19 86 Floretlce porlle QU:l; nues. Paris: L'Astrec.
Discussing Sacha Sosno," uans. Richard A. Cohen. ArlO' Texl 33 (wintet
1989): 30-4 1. 198 7 En qu8te d'un amre commm<:ement. Brussels: Lebc:er-Hossmann.
199 1 Emre notu: Essais Sllr Ie pe~-d-I'aulre. Paris: Grtlsset. Reprint, Le 19 88 L'altrait dll commencement. Brussels: Les Editions du Botanique.
Livre de Poche, '993' English uanslation. Enlre nous: On Thirlk.ing- 19 89 LtJ gmlre du phlnomene: ~ pMnomene, Ie logos, l'ongille. Patis: Minuit.
o.fthe4hn; trans. Michad B. Smith and BarMrn Harshav. New York: L'ipremle. lIIustsated by Pierre AlecniOJky. Mompellier: F3ta Morgana.
1989
Columbia University Press, 1998. Posthumous Texts
1993 La mort et Ie lemps. Edited by Jacques Rolland. Paris: VHerne.
Max ~au, 1928-11J9<l Volume d·hommage. Brussels: Lebeer·Hoss-
1993 Diell, It! mort n Ie urnps. Edited by Jacques Rolland. Paris: Gtasset. ma.nn.
Reprult, Lc Livre de Poche, '995. English translation, God, Dealh and
"Dans I'eclar du ml)ment: Lc: matin d'Orphee."ln ITlfonna difQroIe 16,
Time, trans. Bettina Bergo. Stanford: Stanford University Press. :lOOO.
no. 2:1 1'1-39·
1994 ~s i",prlvus de I'hisloire. Cognac: Fata Motgana. Reprint, Le Livre de
Special issue, "Dossier: Hommage 11 Max Loreau." La part de l'oeil,
Poche, :lOOO,
Yol. 14·
1995 AJttrilt et lramcendance. Cognac: Fata Morgana. English translation, A/~
199 8 Max Lareall: De bJ crlalion, peintu", poIsie, philmophie. Brussels: Labot.
leNlyand TrrJns«ndence, trans. Michael B. Smith. New York: Columb!3
Universiry Press, 1999.
Nouvelles lectures ItllmuQ;ques. Paris: Minuit. English translation, Nelli JEAN-FRANCOIS LYOTARD
Talmudic Ret/dings, trans. Richard A. Cohen. Pittsburgh: Duquesne La phbwmhlOlogie. Paris: Presses Univcnitaircs de France. English
University Ptess. :lOOO. translation. Phmommology. trans. Brian Beakley. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY
2000 Positivitt et IranscenJance: $r4ivi de UvintlJ et la phtnomtnologie. Edited Press, 1991.
by Jean-Luc Marion. Paris: Presses Universitaites de Ftance. 197 1 DiscottrJ,jigure_ Paris: Klincksieck.
1973 Dlrive d pttrtir de Man: et Frelld. Paris: Union Gtntrale d·Editions. :2d
MAX LOREAU ed., Paris: Galilee, 199'\.
CataloguedestrlulQuxtlejearJ Dubuffrt. Edited by Max Loreau. Paris: J.-J. Des disposilift pulsioTlTlels. Paris: Union Generale d'Editions. 2d cd., Paris:
Pauvert. Galilee, 1994.
DI.bufJel elle wyage flU centre de /4 !,"ff/'tion. Paris: La Jeune Parque. 1974 Economie !ibidinale. Paris: Minuit. English translation. Libidillal £am.
Vers une prinlU" phemploi": Asger lorn. C:italog. Paris: Galerie Jeanne omy, trans. lain HamillOn Grant. Bloomington: Indiana Universily
Bucher. Later reprinted in La pttrt ik l'(Mil 1'1 (1988): 201-8. Press, '993'
Le mur Ju PacifUllN. P:lri.$: Christian Bourgois. :r.d ed. Paris.: Galiltt, In PO/itialllflri,,'ngl, trans. Bill Readings :r.nd Kevin Gcim:r.n. Minneapo-
1m English lr:lnslation.Paafk lVall, trans. Brucie 8oonle. Vlenicle,Calif.: lis: Uni\'euity of Minncsota Press, 199.3-
Lapis Press., 1990- us imfIWtlrillUK. Edited with Thierry Chaput. Paris: Centre Georges
Suranq printurrs J~ Rml Guiffrry. Paris: Galerk Stevenson and Palluel. Pompidou.
Let Ir/2nsfomumun DueJwmp. Paris.: Galiltt. English translation. Du. Le ~ np/~ul aux NllanlS: Corrctpondllna, t¢r/9B5- Puis:
champ's Tnlfuformm, trans. Ian McLeod. Venice, Cali(: Lapis Press. Galilee. English translation, The Postmotkm &pu,iniJ. traJU. Julian
'990· Pefanis., Mor~n Thomas, et. al. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
IruuuaiofJJ fJD'mfU'l. Puis: Galiltt. English translation, "l..asons in Press., t992.-
Paganism,~ trans. David Macey. In Tk LyourrJ RNJw, ed. Andrew L'mtltousrtumt; LA critique kantienne tk rhistoirc. Paris: Galilee.
8c.njamin. Cambridge, Man.: Basil Blackwell, 19S9-
QIU' pcinJrc? AIlami, AmkulW, Buren. Paris: La Diff~rcncc.
Rki'llrembu,,,IS. Illustrated by Jacques Mooory. Paris: Galill:e,
HeiJeggcr et "Iniuift." Paris: Galilee. English translation, Hdtkggcr and
RudimrnlS /JD1(7IJ: GmrrJisHnafi[. Paris: Union Gtnerale d'Editions. ~tht jtWl, ~ trans. Andreas Michel and Mark S. Roberts. Minneapolis:
lA COfIdition postmod«rlt!: Rapport lltr It! /OlJOir. Paris: MinuiL Eng- University of Minnesota Press. 1990·
lish translation, The PO/tm04em Co"Jitio": A Report on K1/QwleJgt!, L'inhum"in: C"u.mit!JJur It umpJ. Paris: Galiltt. English translation, The
trans. CkoffBennington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Inhuman: Rtft«tiotlS on Timt, trans. Geoffrey Bennington :lnd Rachel
Minnesota Press, 1984'
Bowlby. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1991.
AUjllSft!: ComJN'JafiOnJ. With Jean-Loup Theooud. Paris: Christian Bour~
gois. English Iranslation,/wt Gamiflg. Iram. Wlad Godzich. Minneapo-
Percgnnlltioru: uw,Form, ElJCflt. New York: Columbia Unh'ersity Press.
French version,Pblgrinalioru: Lbi,forrne, hlntmefl{. Paris: Gahlee, 1990·
lis: Uni\'ersity of Minnesot2 Press, 1985.
La guem Ju AIgbitm: &:n1S, t956-196J' Paris: Galilee. Collected in
Sur liZ ronJtitut«m JII temps fJDr lil couleurJqm kJ «IIVTt!J rkmUI J'Alkrt
PO/itiall W"tings, trans. Bill R~dings and Kevin Ceiman. Minneapolis:
AymL. Paris: Tt:lversi~re.
University ofMinnesou Press, 1993·
lA parti~tk pt'ifltl6Te. Illustrated by Henri Maccheroni. Cannes: Editions
Maryse Candela.
Urrms sur rllnlllytique du Iub!i(fU'. Paris: Galilee. English translation.
Ussons on tM AMI1tK of tM Sl4bbme, trans. Elizabeth Rottenberg.
Daniel Burm, kJ roukurl, kJ [onnel, ~intum. Edited by Benj:r.min H. Sranford:Sranford University Press. 1994·
D. Buchloh. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou.
'99' Lecrurrs tl'nlfana::. Paris:: Galilee.
Monory: Ciels-NI"ulCUJa a ga~ kJ ronfitU tl'un JanJYmK. Paris:
Galerie MacghL '99' LAfacctkJclwws.. Lc Havre: <Ara.logut: Lapongc:.
SaM Appel: lA gtSu d'Appd en quft~d'un aJnltnrotairr. Paris: Galilee.
MorJ()grtlmmalLoin du Joux. Paris: <Atalogue B.aruchdlo. Galerie Lc '99'
dessin. MonrhtlJ postmoJ«rIt!J. Paris: Calil&-. English translation, POIrmotkm
'993
Le diffbmJ. Paris: Minuit. English transJation. Th~ [);ffcrcnd: PhtweJ in FabkJ, IQns. Georges Van Den Abbede. Minneapolis: University of
Dispuu, trans. Georges Van Den Abbecle. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, t997.
Minnesota Press. IgS8. '993 Sam Francis: UlSOtU of Darknas- "Like tht: Paintingl ofa Blind Man."
L'hiltoir~de Ruth. With Ruth Francken. Paris: Le Castor Asual. English Translated by Geoffrey Bennington. Los Angeles: Lapis Press.
translation, ~TheStOryofRuth," trans. Timothy Murray. In The L)'Oklrd 1993 Un trait J'union. With Eberhard Gruber. Sainte~Foy,Quebec: i.e Griffon
Rmtkr; cd. Andrew Benjamin, Cambridge, Mass.: Basil BI:r.ckwell, 19S9. d'Argile, 1993. English translation, The Hyphtt/: BtfW«1l }Iukirm and
L'Q,JJ(Juinat de I'ex"'n~ce par la p6ntllrc: MonDry. Paris: Le Castor Astral. Chriltianity, trans. Pascale~Anne Brault 3nd Michael Naas. New York:
English translation, The Assatsinution of&pcrirnc~ by P"inting: MonDry, Humanity Books, 1999.
trans. Rachel Bowlby. London: Black Dog, I9¢!. SigniMalmur. Paris:Gr:r.ssct. English translation. Signed, Malraux. trans.
u peintu"JuJIlcrld fbY postmodn-ne. Puis: Centre Georges Pompidou. Roben Harvey. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999-
Tom.halu de finull«tlNI et Illttru fJDpim. Paris: G:r.lilee. English transla- 1997 FIonl dania: U IktsJiott 'u geItt datU /a ~inlUre dt: Slig BTfJjfgN'. Paris:
lion, "Tombofthc Intdle<:tU:lI.~trans. Bill Readingsand Keyin Geiman. Galilee.
260 .IIlLIOO .... PlllU 1I1f11.10GkAI'HlliJ :161
1997 Corinn~ Filippi: PhOlogfflplrie . .. Texts by lcan.F'ranyois Lyotard and lk 10 repriJe1llatio". Edited by Daniel Arassc:, Alain Camillon, Giovani
Nicole Vitre. Rc:ims: Editions du Paysage. Careri, Daniele Cohn, Pierrc~Antoine Fabre, and Fran~isc: M:arin.
Ch4mbr~ lOurd~: L'al/lieJthltiqu~ d~ MalfQux. Paris: Galilee. P:lris: Scuil and Gallimard.
La conftuion d'Auglutin. Paris: Galilee:. 1995 Philippe de Champoigne; au, La pTh~t:e cachie. Paris: Hazan.
1995 SIIMime POflSJin. Paris; Seuil. English translation. Sublime Poumn, trans.
2000 Midre d~ la phi/oJOphie. Paris: Galilee.
Catherine Porter. Stanrord: Stanford University Press, tm
1997 De I'enlrelien. Paris: Minuit.
LoUIS MARIN
'997 P4!CI11 et Port-Roysl. Edited by Alain Camillon. Paris: Presses Universi-
Emtles Jfmjologiq/w: Ecr;ttlm, pe;ntures. Paris: Klincksieck. taires de France.
Slmiotiq/le tie la Pauion: Topiquet et fig/IUJ. Paris: Descl&: de Brouwer, 2000 L'ier/ture tie soi. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Aubier-Montaigne:. English translation, TIre SemiotiC! of UU PUJJion
NamuiveJ: Topics and FigureJ, trans. Alfred M. 'ohnson, Jr. Piltsburgh:
JOSEPH RIDDEL
Pickwick Press.
The Clairvoyalll £)'1:: The Poetry and PoetiC! of Wallace. SUWtlS. &ton
1973 UtopiqlleJ:jeuxd'espacu. Paris: Minuit. English tr"nsl"tion, Utopia: The
Rouge: Louisi3na State: Universily Press. .:ld ed. with new postsCript,
&miol4gical Play of Textual SpaceJ, trails. Robert A. VolJr:uh, Atbntic
199 1.
Highlands, N.,.: Humanities Press International, 1990.
l.e rtcil twngtliqta. With Claude Chabrol. Paris: Desclee de Brouwer, 197 1 C. Day ulVis. New York: Jwayne.
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